New Delhi: While addressing a public gathering at his former Lok Sabha constituency Theni earlier this week, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran invoked the names of his late mentor J. Jayalalithaa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“It was Amma (Jayalalithaa) who introduced me to this constituency and I have got you all that you wanted through Amma. Now that she is not there, we have Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the place of our Amma. I can talk to him directly and get whatever the people of our constituency want,” Dhinakaran, who represented the constituency between 1999 and 2004, told the crowd.
It’s been nearly three years since his party AMMK’s near-wipeout in the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly polls sent Dhinakaran, a former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader, into political hibernation.
With the state set to vote for its 39 parliamentary seats on 19 April and the AMMK now in alliance with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Dhinakaran, who is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Theni after 20 years, has been pitching himself as the only Mukkulathor leader who can act as a hotline between Theni’s voters and the central government.
For the nephew of sidelined AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, the last decade has been a roller coaster ride. From being one of the most powerful AIADMK leaders to his expulsion from the party and, more recently, his attempts to get back into active politics, much has changed for Dhinakaran.
For one thing, Dhinakaran has now changed his stance on the BJP from three years ago, when he scoffed at the very idea of a tie-up. For another, he appears to be mending fences with O. Paneerselvam, another outcast AIADMK leader who was instrumental in sacking him from the party back in 2017.
The AMMK is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from two seats — Theni and Tiruchirappalli (Trichy). While Dhinakaran is contesting from the Theni constituency, his colleague P. Senthilnathan — a lone AMMK councillor in the Trichy municipal corporation — is contesting from Trichy. Former Tamil Nadu chief minister OPS, meanwhile, is now contesting as a BJP-backed Independent from Ramanathapuram.
According to political analysts, there’s a larger game plan in Dhinakaran’s resurgence and his newfound allies — the leader trying to consolidate all anti-AIADMK votes before the 2026 assembly polls.
“Regardless of his winning prospects now and even if Dhinakaran and OPS manage to come second and get more votes than AIADMK candidates in their respective constituencies, the chances of internal squabbles within the AIADMK party are high. There would then be renewed calls demand to bring T.T.V Dhinakaran, O. Panneerselvam, and V.K.Sasikala back to the party,” political commentator Barakath Ali told ThePrint.
According to another analyst, Tharasu Shyam, the BJP was Dhinakaran’s only choice. “He cannot go with DMK and he cannot join with AIADMK as well. So, he is left with only one option — the BJP,” he said.
Meanwhile, AMMK cadres say Dhinakaran also has the “blessings” of Sasikala, who was convicted in 2017 in a disproportionate assets case but has now completed her jail term.
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Dhinakaran and BJP
A Mukkulathor leader from Mannargudi in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvarur district, 60-year-old Dhinakaran made his electoral debut in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls from Periyakulam (now part of Theni constituency), an area dominated by the Mukkulathors.
Mukkulathor is not a caste by itself but an umbrella term used to refer to the backward caste groups of Kallars, Maravars, and Agamudaiyars. The group is spread across the Cauvery Delta and the southern part of Tamil Nadu.
In 2004 — the last time he fought the parliamentary polls — Dhinakaran lost the seat to Congress’s J.M. Aaron Rashid. Despite this defeat, the AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa nominated him to the Rajya Sabha.
In the last 20 years, Dhinakaran has contested only two elections — in 2017, when he won from Jayalalithaa’s RK Nagar assembly constituency as an Independent, and in 2021, when his AMMK contested all 234 of Tamil Nadu’s assembly seats.
In March 2018 — months after his expulsion from the AIADMK — he floated the AMMK.
Despite its soaring political ambitions, the AMMK’s electoral successes have been middling at best. Even though the party managed to eat into AIADMK’s votes during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly bye-elections held the same month, it could only secure 8.49 percent in the former and 10.39 percent in the latter, with candidates losing their deposits in all seats but Thoothukudi’s Ottapidaram assembly segment.
Despite these electoral misses, the AMMK party contested the 2021 assembly elections in alliance with actor-politician Vijayakanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) but could manage to secure only 2.4 percent votes.
According to political analysts, Dhinakaran, who had been critical of the BJP despite the Enforcement Directorate’s investigations against him, joined the NDA because of political compulsions.
“Even after 2017, when the places connected Dhinakaran and his family members were raided and sealed, he did not mince his words against the BJP,” Barakath Ali, quoted earlier, said, adding that the former AIADMK leader even snubbed the BJP during the 2021 assembly polls.
For Dhinakaran, this election is not just a chance to prove his mettle — it’s crucial for his political future. “As a leader who could not make inroads in the previous elections, a victory in this election is vital. And he has a high chance of securing the Mukkulathor votes in Theni,” Tharasu Shyam, quoted earlier, said.
It’s for this reason that he chose to make a political comeback in Theni.
“After sealing the deal with BJP, Dhinakaran said he just wanted to contest in Tamil’s south and delta region, where he has a support base. It means he wants to contest in the region where Mukkulathor’s vote share is high,” Ali said.
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Dhinakaran and OPS
Regardless of what political analysts say, however, what matters most for Dhinakaran’s supporters is getting more votes than the AIADMK.
“We will win the election for sure, but more than that, securing more votes than the AIADMK is our primary agenda. We want to teach (former CM) Edappadi K. Palaniswami (referred to as EPS) and his supporters a lesson for insulting our community leaders,” Kaasi Maayan, the Theni district secretary of AMMK, told ThePrint.
While Theni is dominated by Mukkulathor, the area also has a significant presence of the upper caste Pillai and Dalits.
In his attempt to score a win over the AIADMK, Dhinakaran has turned to AIADMK’s other outcast leader, O. Paneerselvam. Another Mukkulathor leader, OPS has been trying to get back his political footing since his expulsion from the AIADMK in July 2022.
His son O.P. Ravindranath is the current Theni MP.
Significantly, the BJP has been holding seat-sharing talks with both leaders.
“We don’t mind either OPS or Dhinakaran. Both of them are our leaders. If they lose, it’s a loss for our community and not for those individuals. We will support both of them irrespective of who contests where,” an OPS supporter from Theni told ThePrint.
For Dhinakaran, this change of heart is notable — it was OPS who had teamed up with the current AIADMK general secretary, then chief minister EPS, in 2017 to expel both him and his aunt Sasikala.
Since his expulsion in 2022, however, OPS has been trying to court both leaders.
According to political commentator Sathiya Moorthy, although Dhinakaran and OPS are now overtly on the same platform, the bad blood between the two leaders won’t be easily forgotten by their supporters.
“While Dhinakaran was given two seats to contest, OPS was given only one seat. This treatment by the BJP might have hurt the Mukkulathors who support OPS in Theni,” the analyst said, adding that OPS supporters are unlikely to vote for the AMMK leader.
However, leaders in the OPS camp disagree. “We are in an alliance and we’re sure that OPS and Dhinakaran would get the votes. They would not just get the votes of Mukkulathors, but also of all the people (in the region),” one such leader told ThePrint.