Chennai: The ongoing feud between Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss and his son and former Union Minister Anbumani took a turn for the worse on Thursday with the former launching a blistering attack on his son, accusing him of autocratic functioning, disregard for party values, and behaviour unbecoming of a leader.
“It was my mistake that I made Anbumani a Central Cabinet Minister (in the first Manmohan Singh Government) when he was just 35,” Ramadoss told journalists at his Thailapuram farm bungalow in Villupuram district.
About The Rift
The father-son duo have not been seeing eye-to-eye both politically and personally for a couple of months now. The differences came out in public when Ramadoss appointed his daughter’s son, Mukundan, as the youth wing leader. This led to an open show of disapproval by Anbumani. “The way Anbumani threw the microphone on the table—nearly hitting me—shocked everyone present,” Ramadoss said, calling it a sign of his son’s “lack of leadership decorum”.
The elder Ramadoss painted a picture of betrayal and erosion of the party’s founding principles. “I built this party by visiting over 95,000 villages, often without food or water,” he said. “All that effort has been undone by Anbumani’s actions.”
Ramadoss had recently declared that Anbumani was no longer president of the party, and instead, he would head it while his son would be the “working president”. Thereafter, attempts by the octogenarian leader to convene party meetings had brought further divisions, with a majority of them supporting Anbumani staying away.
Ramadoss’ latest statement came days after Anbumani, during a meeting in Dharmapuri, expressed emotional distress and confusion over his ouster as president. Ramadoss dismissed the remarks, stating they were aimed at garnering sympathy and diverting the attention of party members from the real issues.
Ramadoss accused his son of disrespecting key party leaders and even attempting to intimidate him. “In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, I wanted to align with the AIADMK – we could have won in 10 seats. But Anbumani and his wife Sowmiya fell at my feet and insisted the PMK must go with the BJP,” he said. He alleged that Anbumani had pressured saying “You (Ramadoss) would face a situation of doing the last rituals for me,” if the alliance didn’t go through.
Incidentally, in April, when Union Minister Amit Shah had come to Chennai to announce the alliance with the AIADMK, the BJP had expected Anbumani also to be on stage. However, that very day, Ramadoss stirred up a controversy, declaring he was taking over as party president and Anbumani would function as working president. Consequently, Shah’s plan did not take wings.
At the time of filing this report, Anbumani had yet to react to the development. Meanwhile, media reports said Mukundan has resigned from the post of PMK youth wing leader.
