The AIADMK’s former coordinator, O. Panneerselvam, who organised a rally in Tiruchi on Monday to mark the launch of his group, is facing the question of whether he will buck the trend of those who break away from principal parties and end up as failures.
Over the past 40-odd years, there have been a number of instances wherein leaders have left the DMK or the AIADMK at one stage or another, to form their own parties but have eventually gone back to their original parties or have merged their parties with some others, or joined hands with either of the principal parties and settled for roles of junior partners.
This can be seen in the examples of S.D. Somasundaram (SDS) and Su. Thirunavukkarasar, both of whom left the AIADMK in the 1980s and ‘90s, and Vaiko, who exited from the DMK in 1993. By a coincidence, SDS too had an event to launch his party, Namadhu Kazhagam, in Tiruchi in September 1984 with a 6 km long procession of lorries, tractor trailers, cars and vans, carrying banners. But in the 1984 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, his party’s performance was a disaster.
