After Amma: AIADMK’s struggle to fill the void left by Jayalalithaa | India News

J Jayalalithaa (AI-generated image used for representation)

New Delhi: After almost a decade J Jayalalithaadeath of AIADMK Still trying to reinvent myself. Once held together by Amma’s vast authority, the party has spent years battling leadership battles, electoral debacle and coalition changes, even as it prepares for another high-stakes assembly election in 2026.On Jayalalitha’s birth anniversary, the question looms large: Has the AIADMK really moved beyond the vacuum she left behind, or is it still searching for a leader who can restore its lost hegemony?Once a dominant force under the leadership of Jayalalithaa as party supremo, the AIADMK exerted significant influence on the state’s political landscape. But how has the party reshaped itself since her death, and how has it navigated the infighting over its true political successor following the death of Tamil Nadu’s leading lady in 2016?From giving a major blow to the Vajpayee government to his on-off relationship with the saffron party and now a carefully considered continuation of the alliance for the upcoming elections despite the recent debacle, it is noted with Prime Minister Modi‘Mann Ki Baat’, Amma’s AIADM is impossible to ignore, whether the BJP is weak or politically dominant.

“Remembering Jayalalitha ji on her birth anniversary. She won the hearts and minds of countless people as a charismatic leader and outstanding administrator. Her life was one of immense grit and determination. As Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, she championed welfare-driven governance, where she emphasized social development and women’s empowerment. And I remember my conversations with her with great fondness,” said PM Modi.As Tamil Nadu heads towards assembly elections scheduled for the summer of 2026, it will be the second such poll without Jayalalithaa’s strong presence. The 2021 assembly elections have given AIA a major blowDMKThe party suffered a major defeat at the hands of DMK leader and son of M Karunanidhi, MK Stalin. After Amma’s strong leadership the void was not filled as the party battled with internal contenders, with Edappadi Palaniswami, abbreviated as EPS, now in the role of captain of the AIADMK ship, setting a strong eye on the Chennai chair.

After the death of Jayalalitha, the senior leader of the party And PanneerselvamKnown as OPS, assumed the post of Chief Minister. However, he was largely absent and unable to fully fill Amma’s shoes, given his huge personality and mass appeal.His gravitas and unparalleled mass connect, cultivated over years in public life, drew a sea of ​​crowds on the streets when he was laid to rest next to his political mentor and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran at Chennai’s iconic Marina Beach.

After Amma, senior party leader OPS found himself comfortably succeeding Jayalalithaa’s chair, but not for long. He was deposed in less than a year. In February 2017, EPS rose to the top position. A few months later, OPS began serving as deputy chief minister under its new boss, this time not Jayalalithaa, but a man from a rival faction within the party, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who is a few years younger than him.The EPS-OPS relationship began to strain as both the AIADMK stalwarts engaged in an ugly feud, gradually making the rival DMK look stronger and eventually paving the way for MK Stalin to claim a strong Chief Minister’s chair. Meanwhile, the AIADMK leadership was embroiled in a legal battle, with the EPS and OPS each defying the other’s authority and asserting their own claim to the top post of the party – the post of general secretary.The dispute between the two veterans was taken up by the Madras High Court and later the Supreme Court, both of which eventually ruled that EPSE was a more suitable leader for the AIADMK, leading to Panneerselvam’s ouster.

However, Amma’s death did not immediately pit EPS and OPS against each other. The real player at the center of the initial power struggle was the Sasikala family. Sasikala, a close aide of Tamil Nadu’s most powerful woman, was often described by some as Jayalalithaa’s shadow and by others as her friend. Yet then Chief Minister and party chief Jayalalithaa herself, who spoke very kindly of Sasikala, described her as “almost like a sister”.“

Sasikala, after Amma’s death, was immediately elected unanimously as the Acting General Secretary of the AIADMK and soon after was elected as the Leader of the Assembly but the then Chief Minister, OPS rebelled against Sasikala and reported that she had been forced to resign as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, bringing a new twist to the state’s politics.Sasikala also appointed her nephew TTV Dhinakaran as the party’s deputy general secretary. Dhinakaran, who later began to exploit Amma’s legacy for political currency, eventually formed his own party after the EPS-led AIADMK expelled Sasikala from the organization. He found a new outfit called Jayalalithaa – Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK).After her conviction in the disproportionate assets case linked to Jayalalithaa, Sasikala was sentenced to four years in prison and lodged in the Bengaluru Central Jail. Before beginning his jail term, he appointed EPS as the AIADMK’s legislative party leader, paving the way for him to assume the post of Chief Minister.

In a dramatic twist, the EPS later expelled the Sasikala family members from the party and consolidated its control over the AIADMK, displacing the OPS from key posts.After sidelining bigwigs like former CM Panneerselvam and shunting away the Sasikala party, the EPS has strengthened its hold on the party command. He now positions himself as the undisputed leader of the AIADMK, keen to reclaim the top post in the state and challenge the incumbent MK Stalin’s leadership.

However, on her birth anniversary on Tuesday, Sasikala also floated the idea of ​​launching her own party, another attempt to invoke Amma Jayalalithaa’s name and legacy as political currency.

Talking to reporters, Sasikala said, “Today there is a function on Amma’s birthday. We are organizing an event on his birthday where the good news will come.”

Amma’s last election in Tamil Nadu, which she won in the 2011 election, resulted in a dwindling number of seats, losing her control in many seats. Yet Jayalalitha managed to steer her boat past the magic number mark — a majority — 118 out of 234 seats, — the Amma-led party bagging 136 seats, without the support of any alliance, not even with the BJP — a national party that has a bitter-sweet relationship with Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK.Under Jayalalithaa’s leadership, the AIADMK made history by winning the assembly elections and returning to power as the first ruling party in Tamil Nadu since 1984, albeit with a simple majority.This was the last election contested by J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi, as they died in 2016 and 2018 respectively.

The AIADMK faced its biggest setback in the 39-seat Tamil Nadu battleground during the Lok Sabha elections. After losing its leading lady, the party was reduced to just one seat, a stark contrast to Amma’s landslide victory of 37 seats in 2014 – clearly highlighting the impact of Jayalalithaa’s absence.However, the AIADMK was allied with the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who won a commanding victory nationally and returned to power for a second consecutive term as Prime Minister. In Tamil Nadu, the alliance performed disastrously and gave an embarrassing result. Neither the EPS nor Modi has been able to replicate the massive success Jayalalithaa achieved in the state in the 2014 elections, a reminder of the strong leadership she brought to Tamil Nadu politics.

The slide continued in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections as well. The EPS-led and Amma-less AIADMK, hoping to retain power, failed to make a comeback. After a humiliating tally of just one seat in the Lok Sabha elections, the Amma-less party saw its strength in the assembly shrink further, down to double digits – far from what it needed to stay in power.

Stalin, meanwhile, rose to power despite the death of his father and DMK leader M Karunanidhi. This is DMK’s first election without a long-time patriarch. However, unlike the AIADMK, the DMK has not witnessed visible infighting or petty internal politics. That relative unity may have helped Stalin consolidate his leadership and firmly establish himself at the top of the state.

Nothing has changed for the AIADMK in the 2024 general elections. The party remained at the bottom and could not win a single seat this time. Once a formidable force under MG Ramachandran and later his successor Jayalalithaa, the party was decimated in the Lok Sabha elections.

The shock has forced the AIADMK to start virtually anew, even as several old guards continue to overshadow its present. Sasikala and her nephew Dhinakaran have taken an aggressive stance at times in the new EPS-led era, while another veteran leader and former chief minister, O Panneerselvam, continues to launch barbs at the party’s leadership. For many in the organization these developments are a far cry from the old, golden days of the party.

From the Vajpayee era to PM Modi’s recent tribute to “Amma” on her birth anniversary, the BJP’s relationship with the AIADMK has come full circle, alliances, splits, reunions. Despite the electoral debacle in Tamil Nadu, the saffron party has kept the door open for its old Dravidian ally, signaling once again that political imperatives outweigh past differences.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah described the BJP-AIADMK partnership as a “natural alliance”, arguing that the 2024 Lok Sabha results would have looked dramatically different had the two contested together. “We fought together in 1998, 2019 Lok Sabha elections and 2021 assembly elections. But in 2024, we competed separately. If our vote share were combined, we would have won 36 seats,” he said, adding that 2024 and 2025 were winning years for the BJP in several states and the trend would repeat in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

For the BJP, the outreach pinpoints a hard truth: Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian voter base lies with regional powers, primarily the ruling DMK and the opposition AIADMK. To rebuild a larger NDA footprint in the state, the party is also engaging smaller players and former allies.AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami, meanwhile, called the alliance “vital” to defeat what he called the “anti-people” DMK regime. “AIADMK will take power in 2026 with an absolute majority… Tamil Nadu has never had such a corrupt, incompetent anti-people government,” the EPS said.This is the latest AIADMK-BJP partnership, which is once again K Edappadi. Led by Palaniswami — now repositioning himself as Jayalalithaa’s political heir and reshaping the party’s lineup, balancing longtime allies with those who blocked her — the aim is to once again take a strong Stalin-led DMK without Amma’s shadow. Whether this renewed alliance survives or proves another short-lived truce will ultimately be decided at the ballot box, as Tamil voters consider succession, leadership and commitments in the months ahead.