PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday urged party functionaries to reach out to all communities for support in the upcoming Assembly elections and shun the “politics of the past”.
At a meeting of the party’s union, town panchayat, corporation area secretaries and presidents at Mamallapuram, he contended, he is not an enemy of any community.
He hit out at former party president G.K. Mani accusing him of “manipulating” PMK founder and his estranged father, S. Ramadoss and “creating differences between us since 2022” when he stepped down as party president.
According to him, the PMK’s ideological guides are Periyar (E V Ramasamy), B.R. Ambedkar and Karl Marx and the party speaks for all communities while extolling the value of lower level office bearers as ‘heroes’.
“PMK is a mainly rural party…farmers and workers are our supporters. A Union Secretary roughly covers 25 villages — each with about 25,000 voters. Have you protested in those villages and spoken about their problems? Even if you cover 1 village a day, you can cover 25 villages in a month. A distance has crept in between the union secretaries and the villages. If Union Secretaries work hard and speak to the people, PMK can gain more votes than what it does. District secretaries are like directors…the Union secretaries are actually the heroes,” he said.
Dr. Anbumani added, “Some of them say…in that village, there are Muslims or there are Christians, Scheduled Castes…or Mudaliars or Reddiars. These are remnants of old politics (assuming that other communities will not vote for PMK). All religious communities and caste communities have accepted me. I am talking out of experience. Our politics is different. You change your mindset…people are extending our support. You must tailor your approach.”
He claimed Mr Mani betrayed the cause of Vanniyar reservations by consistently misleading Dr. Ramadoss, manipulating him into believing that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin would accede to PMK’s demands.
“After the Supreme Court verdict, six months to a year had passed. I told Ayya (Ramadoss) we should fight, go to the field, show who we are. But G.K. Mani immediately went to Ayya and told him, ‘Ayya, the DMK will give reservation; we need not protest.’ In this way, G.K. Mani weakened Ayya’s fighting spirit. This is not an ordinary betrayal — this is a betrayal committed by G.K. Mani against the entire community,” he claimed.
Dr. Anbumani alleged the DMK is playing havoc within the PMK to weaken the party by using their traitors amongst the PMK.
“Thailapuram (his estranged father’s residence) has been taken over by the DMK. Those inside the DMK are enemies; those surrounding Ayya are traitors. What kind of mindset have these traitors pushed Ayya into? I will never forgive these traitors. Ayya is like a child, and G.K. Mani and others have been deceiving him. They lost their case in the Delhi High Court, but they lied to Ayya saying they won. They continue to fool Ayya,” he alleged.
Published – December 09, 2025 07:30 pm IST
