Family feud spills over to the street: PMK founder Ramadoss calls son Anbumani shameless liar

Washing dirty linen in public, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss on Thursday chose to call his son and the heir apparent, Anbumani Ramadoss, names describing his as a shameless liar and regretting that it was a mistake to make him a Union Minister in 2004 when the party was a constituent of the UPA government.

As the rift between the father-son duo gets wide open and the efforts at rapprochement hitting a near dead end, Ramadoss senior has turned his ire against his son, accusing him of creating a rebellion within the party while the latter has started functioning separately from an office at suburban Sholinganallur in Chennai.

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“Anbumani has gone against me. I was dead when only 8 District Secretaries attended the meeting I had convened. He has prevented others with intimidation. In my more than four decades of public life, it is he who has stabbed me. It was my mistake to make him a Union Minister when he was just 35 years old,” he fumed, levelling a litany of charges before the media at his residence in Thailapuram gardens near Tindivanam, about 150 km from Chennai.

“There is nothing shameful in losing a fight with one’s father. I had advised an alliance with the AIADMK in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But, both Anbumani and his wife Sowmya fell at my feet pleading for teaming up with the BJP. Anbumani even threatened that I had to light the funeral pyre for him if the PMK did not align with the BJP. I had to relent. Had they joined the AIADMK-led alliance then, the PMK would have won in at least three seats and the AIADMK in more than six to seven seats. He lacks maturity and leadership qualities,” he said, opening up about his son. With the majority of functionaries apparently siding with Anbumani, he finds political isolation in the party he had founded four decades ago.

An OBC Vanniyar-dominant party, the PMK has its support base in northern Tamil Nadu. However, there has been an erosion in the vote share of the party, indicating a steady desertion in its ranks.

After being a constituent of the NDA in the 2024 LS poll, it has yet to decide on the alliance for the 2026 Assembly election. The ruling DMK has firmly shut its door on the PMK, limiting its options.

Like any other family-centric party, the present crisis in the PMK is due to the pressures from the extended family of senior Ramadoss. From his own words, it’s all in the family. According to observers, the son is opposed to sharing the pie with other family members.

Narrating certain incidents, he said, “Anbumani publicly protested the appointment of Mukunthan (son of Ramadoss’ elder daughter) at the General Council meeting and hurled the mike on the table, which barely missed hitting me, to everyone’s shock. Then, he attacked his mother by hurling a bottle during the Pongal celebration when she said Anbumani would remain quiet if his daughter were appointed the party’s youth wing chief. However, it did not hit her. He also humiliated senior party leader GK Mani and his son at the General Council.”

It was Anbumani who threw the gauntlet at his father, questioning the latter’s decision to strip him of the party president’s post and usurp it by making him Working President. “What was my fault? Why was I removed from the post of president?” he had asked at a recent public meeting at Dharmapuri. Sources close to his faction maintain that he preferred not to react and function from the office at Sholinganallur and consolidate the party behind him. With every party gearing up for the upcoming assembly election, who will blink first among the two will be known in the days ahead.