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Tamil Nadu: After poll rout, it's an uphill task ahead for Anbumani Ramadoss' PMK

Anbumani Ramadoss PMK drew a blank in all 232 constituencies in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections this year.

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It was in November 2012 when the tragic case of Divya and Illavarasan, an inter-caste couple, hit headlines. The girl’s father, a Vanniyar (a dominant community in the region), allegedly committed suicide citing humiliation after the duo eloped and got married. More than 200 houses were then set on fire in Natham, Kondampatti and Annanagar Dalit colonies in Dharmapuri district by the Vanniyars. Many houses were also looted and valuables and money to the tune of lakhs were taken. Illavarasan was later found dead near a railway track. It was alleged that it was the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) that masterminded the Vanniyar-Dalit caste clash. Though Dr Ramadoss had denied these allegations, the Dalits still hold the PMK responsible for the violence in 2012.

Now, the PMK is in the limelight once again as it drew a blank in all 232 constituencies in the 2016 Assembly Elections. The son of the founder president S Ramadoss, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss was projected as the CM candidate, but even he didn’t manage to retain his MLA seat. After failing to form an alternative front to take on the Dravidian parties, the party decided to go it alone. In his attempt to persuade the voters in Tamil Nadu, Anbumani Ramadoss tried to imitate Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal by shedding the image of a traditional politician. With a large ambition and a vibrant manifesto, the party propagated liquor prohibition across the state, free education and health, to mainly lure youth and women voters.

Having served as the  Union Minister of Health during the Congress regime in 2009, Anbumani Ramadoss used his achievements then as a foundation for his 2016 TN manifesto. Though he introduced schemes such as the banning of public smoking and smoking scenes in films as Union Minister, cases of allegedly abusing his office were dogging him over the last few years. On April 27, 2012, he was chargesheeted by the CBI in a Delhi court for allegedly allowing an Indore-based medical college to go ahead with admissions without having sufficient faculty and clinical material. The 36-page chargesheet named the PMK leader and nine others. But Anbumani Ramadoss stated that his name was included for political reasons and he would come out clean in this case.

As for Tamil Nadu, Anbumani wanted to make a fresh start in 2016 and lay new ground for the PMK. But the PMK has always been seen as a party of and for the Vanniyars, so this time it tried desperately to wipe out its caste-based party image. In an interview to dna, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss had said, “My party has members of all caste, creed and religions. For the elections, we have given representation to Brahmins, from the Iyers to the Iyengars to Reddiars, Pillamars to Naidus and all communities. In fact, PMK is the only party in this election to have given representation to 48 Dalits.” But for the common man on the street, PMK is still seen as having a very caste-based image.

In the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the party won from the Dharmapuri constituency and gained in the backdrop of the Divya-Illavarasan marriage. However, despite its projection as an alternative to the Dravidian parties this time, the party failed to connect with the voters as the Vanniyar community itself did not vote for Dr Anbumani Ramadoss in Pennagaram. Across the 232 constituencies, the vote percentage was only 5.3 percentage, which is just a fraction higher from 2011 when it garnered 5.23 percent.

The poll results have brought back a Dravidian party to power and reveals that the PMK party has been unsuccessful in its attempt to change its image. A few days back, Ramadoss slammed the election commission in not stopping the cash-for-votes doled out by the AIADMK and DMK and alleged that it was money power that brought back the AIADMK into power. His party will work with more vigour and pace by being an example for all the parties to learn from, he added. He also cited Lokayukta, prohibition and freebies, which were all part of the PMK agenda and are now being followed by all the other parties. “For the next five years, we will work for the development of the party and for the people. Unlike the Dravidian parties which see politics as a business, we see this as as a service that resulted in us losing the elections. But we will continue to educate people and work for the winning of the party in the years to come,” he added. The party can only hope to go through an image makeover and make political in-roads across the state in time for the next elections.

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