Familiar foes trying to recover lost ground in southern districts of T.N.

AIADMK faces dual challenges in southern T.N. as former leaders O. Panneerselvam and V.K. Sasikala launch rival campaigns.

The principal Opposition party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), is facing a unique situation.

Apart from encountering political offensive from the DMK, its traditional adversary, the AIADMK is experiencing a two-pronged attack — one from its former coordinator and now Bodinayakkanur candidate of the DMK, O. Panneerselvam, and another from its former interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala, who heads the All India Puratchi Thalaivar Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AIPTMMK).

While the former has addressed as many as 40 meetings in many areas of the southern region, explaining how he was “meted out injustice” at the hands of the AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the latter, who has announced 80 candidates on behalf of her party, is set to commence her tour in Thirupparankundram on Tuesday.

Making use of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary to announce her decision of running a party of her own, the AIPTMMK general secretary, once an aide of the former Chief Minister, chose Kamuthi in Ramanathapuram district for the occasion. She played the victim card and blamed Mr. Palaniswami for having “betrayed” her.

Two reasons can be attributed to the focus of the present adversaries of the AIADMK in the south.

The party had always received generous support from the districts in its heyday. This could be seen from the fact that the organisation bagged 40 Assembly seats in 2001, when the region had a total of 63 seats, and 30-odd seats out of 58 on each of the occasions in 2011 and 2016.