We started this party against the DMK. To join them now would be our vanishing.
In the shifting sands of Tamil Nadu's Dravidian political order, a faction of the AIADMK led by CV Shanmugham has chosen to anchor itself to the rising TVK government of actor-politician Vijay, rather than drift toward its historic rival, the DMK. The decision, announced after a meeting of AIADMK legislators, lays bare a deep internal fracture over the party's identity and survival — one that pits Shanmugham against former chief minister Palaniswami. At its heart, this is a story about what a party does when the old certainties dissolve: whether it preserves its soul by holding to old enmities, or risks losing itself entirely in the search for relevance.
- A faction of the AIADMK has broken from internal consensus, publicly backing Vijay's TVK government and claiming the loyalty of a majority of the party's 47 elected legislators.
- The move triggers an open rupture with former chief minister Palaniswami, exposing a power struggle over the AIADMK's future that can no longer be contained behind closed doors.
- Shanmugham draws a hard line against any DMK alliance, invoking five decades of ideological opposition and warning that such a merger would erase the party's very reason for existing.
- To consolidate control, Shanmugham reshapes the party's legislative structure — installing Velumani as Assembly Leader and Vijayabaskar as whip, locking in institutional authority for his faction.
- The faction declares it will contest future elections alone, framing organizational independence as both a statement of ambition and an honest reckoning with how far the party must rebuild.
Tamil Nadu's political landscape shifted on Tuesday when CV Shanmugham's faction of the AIADMK announced it would support the newly formed government of actor-politician C Joseph Vijay and his TVK party — a move that both signals a major realignment and exposes deepening fractures within one of the state's oldest political organizations.
Shanmugham made the announcement following a meeting of AIADMK legislators, claiming that the majority of the party's 47 elected representatives backed the decision. But the announcement was as much about what the faction was rejecting as what it was embracing. Shanmugham was emphatic: his group would not align with the DMK, the rival Dravidian party that has long dominated Tamil Nadu. To do so, he argued, would betray five decades of political identity built entirely around opposition to the DMK — and the party's cadre had made clear they would not accept it.
This put Shanmugham in direct conflict with former chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who had favored a different approach. The rift between the two men, long simmering, was now impossible to ignore — and Shanmugham's announcement was a deliberate move to settle the question in his faction's favor.
To cement that control, Shanmugham restructured the party's legislative apparatus, appointing former minister S.P. Velumani as Assembly Leader and C. Vijayabaskar as party whip. He also declared that the AIADMK would contest future elections as an independent force, without alliances — a statement of ambition, but also an acknowledgment that a party which once governed Tamil Nadu alone must now rebuild from the ground up.
By backing TVK while firmly rejecting the DMK, Shanmugham is positioning his faction as the guardian of the AIADMK's ideological core. Whether that positioning holds as Vijay's government takes shape remains an open and consequential question.
Tamil Nadu's political landscape shifted on Tuesday when a faction of the AIADMK, led by CV Shanmugham, announced it would support the newly formed government of actor-politician C Joseph Vijay and his TVK party. The move marks a significant realignment in state politics and exposes deepening fractures within one of Tamil Nadu's oldest political organizations.
Shanmugham made the announcement after a meeting of AIADMK legislators, claiming that the majority of the party's elected representatives backed the decision to prop up Vijay's administration. The AIADMK had won 47 seats in the recent assembly elections, giving the faction meaningful leverage in the state legislature. By throwing its weight behind TVK, Shanmugham's group was signaling a clear choice about which direction the party would move—and which alliances it would reject.
The real tension, however, lay in what the AIADMK was saying no to. Shanmugham was emphatic that his faction would not align with the DMK, the rival Dravidian party that has long dominated Tamil Nadu politics. He framed this as a matter of principle and survival. The AIADMK, he argued, was founded in opposition to the DMK and had built its entire political identity around that antagonism across five decades. To join forces with the DMK now would be to betray that history and risk the party's dissolution into irrelevance. The party's cadre and legislators, he said, had made clear they would not accept such an arrangement.
This stance put Shanmugham at odds with former chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who apparently favored a different approach to the question of supporting Vijay's government. The rift between the two men reflected a broader internal struggle over the AIADMK's future direction—a struggle that had been simmering but was now impossible to ignore. Shanmugham's announcement was, in effect, a move to consolidate his faction's control and settle the question in his favor.
Beyond the immediate question of supporting Vijay, Shanmugham used the legislators' meeting to reshape the party's internal structure. He announced that former minister S.P. Velumani would serve as the AIADMK's Assembly Leader, the position that gives the party's legislative contingent its formal voice in the house. C. Vijayabaskar was appointed as party whip, responsible for managing the group's voting discipline. These appointments signaled that Shanmugham's faction was consolidating institutional control.
Shanmugham also articulated a longer-term vision for the party. The AIADMK, he said, would contest future elections as an independent force, without alliances. This represented a deliberate choice to rebuild the party's organizational machinery from the ground up rather than rely on coalition arrangements. It was a statement of ambition—the party would stand on its own feet—but also an acknowledgment of weakness. An organization that had once governed Tamil Nadu alone now needed to rebuild its base.
The decision to back Vijay's government, then, was not simply a tactical move to secure ministerial positions or legislative influence. It was a statement about identity and direction. By supporting TVK while rejecting the DMK, Shanmugham was positioning his faction as the guardian of the AIADMK's ideological core, the keeper of its anti-DMK flame. Whether that positioning would hold as the new government took shape remained an open question.
Notable Quotes
We started this party against the DMK. For 53 years, we did politics against the DMK. If we join an alliance with the DMK, then the AIADMK will be vanished.— CV Shanmugham, AIADMK faction leader
The majority of AIADMK MLAs passed a resolution that the AIADMK will contest elections alone, without any alliance.— CV Shanmugham
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter that one faction of the AIADMK backs Vijay instead of the other option?
Because the AIADMK has 47 seats. That's real power in the legislature. Whoever controls those votes shapes whether Vijay's government survives or falls. But it's also about which faction gets to say what the party stands for.
And the DMK option—why was that even on the table?
Because the DMK won the most seats. Mathematically, a coalition with the DMK would have been the path to power and cabinet positions. But Shanmugham's faction saw that as a betrayal of everything the AIADMK was built to oppose. For fifty years, they've defined themselves against the DMK.
So this is about principle, not just politics?
It's both. But the principle runs deep. If you're a party founded to fight another party, and then you join that party, what are you? Shanmugham was saying: we'd rather be independent and weak than absorbed and gone.
What about Palaniswami? Why would he want the DMK alliance?
He probably saw it as pragmatic—a way to get back into government, to have influence. But he lost that argument. Shanmugham moved faster, held the meeting, got the resolution passed, appointed the leadership. By the time Palaniswami could respond, the decision was made.
Does this mean the AIADMK is now unified behind Shanmugham?
No. It means Shanmugham won this round. The party is split, and Palaniswami still has followers. This is a ceasefire, not a resolution. The real test comes when the government starts distributing power and resources.