Anbumani meets Ramadoss, fails to end tussle

VILLUPURAM: After weeks of tussle over party reins, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss and his father S Ramadoss sat down for a talk at the Thailapuram farmhouse on Thursday, but a truce remained elusive.Anbumani, accompanied by his daughter Sanjutra, drove down to Ramadoss’ residence. Ramadoss and Anbumani chose not to speak to the media about the 45-minute meeting. Though party functionaries said the meeting was a positive development, reconciliation might take a while as they could not reach an amicable solution.PMK sources said Ramadoss is willing to allow Anbumani to continue as PMK president in return of Anbumani accepting Ramadoss’s grandson Mukundan as the party’s youth wing president.

The senior Ramadoss insists he should have the veto power over electoral alliances.“The meeting has not yielded any fruitful result. We may have to wait for a couple of more days,’’ said a party source who confirmed Anbumani’s elder sister Gandhimathi joined the meeting for the last five minutes. Gandhimathi is the mother of P Mukundan, who denounced the post of PMK youth wing president after Anbumani objected to Ramadoss announcing his appointment at the party’s general council meeting on Dec 28, 2024.

Earlier this week, Ramadoss had said that he would respond to Anbumani’s charge that only he has the power to appoint or remove party functionaries during his weekly press meet on Thursday. Ramadoss later called off the press meet.Soon after Anbumani left Thailapuram, ‘Thuglak’ magazine editor S Gurumurthy and former Chennai mayor Saidai Duraisamy called on Ramadoss. Gurumurthy called it a courtesy meeting. “I visited Ramadoss as he has been my friend for a long time,” he said.

BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran said BJP had no role in the Thailapuram meetings. He said Gurumurthy and Saidai Duraisamy met Ramadoss in their personal capacity.Gurumurthy’s meeting with Ramadoss ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Tamil Nadu on June 8 had triggered speculation that Gurumurthy was trying to convince Ramadoss to stay in NDA for the 2026 assembly polls. Last week, Ramadoss had said that though he did not want PMK to ally with BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was Anbumani who pressured him to accept the tie-up.“All we want is peace to prevail everywhere, and for everyone to work together to defeat DMK in the upcoming assembly elections,” Nainar said.