Can PMK recover from recurring defeats?

VELLORE: The euphoria that rent the air until a few hours into the vote counting disappeared as the party candidates began to trail behind their opponents, despite the pendulum swinging in Dharmapuri at times before the final defeat.

The PMK men wore a look of despondency with sagging spirit. This happens after about two months of chest beating and trumpeting of their might contributing to the winning prospects of their alliance. A shell-shocked PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss would have been riling over yet another wrong call made in choosing the alliance for a big-time fight at the hustings, given the record of past polls.

The wound inflicted in the just-concluded general elections to the Lok Sabha, in which all its seven candidates including party scion Anbumani Ramadoss had to bite the dust, is so severe that it would take a longer time to heal.

It has been the story of missing woods for the trees as far as PMK, the Vanniyar outfit, is concerned ever since 2009 Lok Sabha elections. After peaking to glory by winning elections in the company of either of the Dravidian majors and enjoying State power at the Centre, the downslide began a couple of years into the 2006 assembly elections. The party won a handsome, 18 seats, as part of DMK alliance and had so much clout in the government before turning against the DMK, which was in power though not having majority on its own.

Switching over to AIADMK alliance in 2009 for the Lok Sabha elections ended in a big embarrassment as the party could not win even a single seat, soon followed parting ways. In two years time, PMK returned to DMK alliance to face the 2011 assembly polls in which it put up a very poor performance. Then followed the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Anbumani alone could win from Dharmapuri in the company of BJP and DMDK. The victory was more attributed to the raked up frenzy of the Vanniyar caste in the backdrop of the tragic death of Dalit youngster Ilavarasan.

Emulating and replicating the methods of then US President Barack Obama and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the party juxtaposed Anbumani with a slogan of ‘change, development and Anbumani’. The gamble fetched no dividend. Eventually, the chief ministerial candidate himself could not muster support to win the elections.

In 2019, the PMK made a somersault in forging alliance with the AIADMK, inviting the wrath of the public and the opposition parties, particularly the DMK whose efforts to woo it failed. Despite claiming to have sizable vote share hovering around 5 per cent, the party is inflicted with defeat after defeat. What ails the PMK?

“PMK is consistently taking a beating in the polls.  It suffers from vulnerability to money, family interests and priorities and lack of mass connection,” says Dr Ramu Manivannan, Head, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras. There is a big question on the party’s winnability in elections. It has not performed better in five elections in a row -- three to Lok Sabha and two to the assembly ever since 2009.

It is not able to win over newer sections of the society in favour its candidates to boost the victory prospects as the party plays the caste card aggressively against Dalits. Whipping up of the caste frenzy does not help the PMK. Frequent hopping of alliance is also playing against it with the youngsters questioning and ridiculing it. Erosion in its core vote bank of Vanniyar community is also a factor to reckon with.

What is needed is a deep analysis of the failures and earnest self introspection for a course correction.
“We are surely going to go into the factors that contributed to the loss. We will analyse all the factors relating to the poll outcome and find ways to further strengthen the party,” said advocate K Balu, official spokesperson of the PMK. “Informal assessment is going on right now. An overall review will be made soon,” he added. However, political observers find it a herculean task to raise the party from the depths of the defeat.