Almost immediately, more than 2,000 party functionaries from the Erode region resigned in solidarity with Sengottaiyan. However, this did not include any former ministers or senior leaders, with the sole exception of former MP Sathyabama.
Political analyst Durai Karuna said Sengottaiyan’s voice is heard since he is the senior most leader in the party. “People think Sengottaiyan has no heavyweights behind him. But in AIADMK, elections are not won by big names—they are won by grassroots functionaries.
It is they who bring in voters, and they are overwhelmingly supportive of Sengottaiyan’s call for unifying all AIADMK factions. Their voices may not be heard in party headquarters, but they will reflect in the election results,” Karuna told ThePrint, adding that EPS cannot afford to underestimate Sengottaiyan’s rebellion.
Amid the turmoil, Sengottaiyan travelled to Delhi Monday morning stating that he was travelling to Haridwar to visit the Ram temple, fueling speculation of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) angle. Upon returning Tuesday evening, he confirmed that he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. “I explained the political situation in the state and I want everyone in the party to be reunited to face the upcoming 2026 assembly elections,” he told the media in Coimbatore.
Nevertheless, AIADMK senior leaders refuted it stating that he did not meet either Shah or Sitharaman.
In a video released on social media platform ‘X’, Rajya Sabha MP Thambidurai said it was an utter lie that Sengottaiyan met Shah. “Because I met him Tuesday. Had Sengottaiyan met the home minister, he would have asked me about it or to somebody else in the party. But, he did not ask anyone…,” he posted.
Political analyst Marudhu Azhaguraj suspected a BJP hand in the developments.
“He has met BJP leaders several times and even now, as soon as he was sidelined, he rushed to Delhi. It was Friday. He sat in the press conference with Periyar’s portrait and on Monday, he said he wants ‘peace of mind’ and goes to Ram temple. These strongly suggest that he is playing to the tune of the BJP,” the former editor of AIADMK’s mouthpiece Namadhu MGR and Namadhu Amma told ThePrint.
Nevertheless, the BJP refuted the claims stating that it did not want to interfere with AIADMK’s intra-party affairs. “We do not want to interfere with the AIADMK affairs. Our party’s high command has appointed EPS as the leader of the NDA in Tamil Nadu and we will follow it,” BJP state president Nainar Nagendran said Tuesday.
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Changing roles
Sengottaiyan was the Erode district secretary since the days of MGR. He first entered the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 1977 from Erode’s Sathyamangalam constituency and was better known as a loyal MGR man.
After the demise of MGR, Jayalalithaa relied on three individuals. Sengottaiyan was one of them.
“Jayalalithaa had three thalapathys (commanders) when she first contested in 1989 to become the opposition leader of the house for the first time. Sengottaiyan, Azhagu Thirunavukkarasu and Rajakannappan were the thalapathys she relied on. Sengottaiyan then was not merely a district secretary, but someone whom she trusted at the highest level,” recalled Durai Karuna.
When Jayalalithaa first embarked on a statewide tour in 1989 to establish herself as the political heir of MGR, it was Sengottaiyan who mapped the routes and oversaw logistics.
“Before Jayalalithaa reached a campaign spot, Sengottaiyan would visit the place and make sure everything was fine. That tour made him close not only to Jayalalithaa, but also to party workers across the state,” recalled Durai Karuna.
Political analyst Perumal Mani noted that Sengottaiyan’s importance lay in the western region, which is now an AIADMK stronghold. “When AIADMK split in 1989, Sengottaiyan secured the Erode belt for Jayalalithaa.”
Perumal Mani said that in the Kongu region, Sengottaiyan’s stature is equal to that of EPS. “If Sengottaiyan says something, it would be heard across the region and people take it seriously. Cadres would rise in respect for Sengottaiyan’s words in the Kongu region. That stature is why he could challenge EPS.”
The man who shaped EPS
Former Palani MLA A.Subburathinam underscored the irony in the relationship between EPS and Sengottaiyan.
“In 1989, Sengottaiyan introduced EPS to Jayalalithaa. That’s how he first became MLA. The party was split between Janaki and Jayalalithaa factions. Sengottaiyan brought 12 MLAs to Amma’s side out of 27. Without him, she could not have stood as leader of the opposition. But today, the man who created EPS is being finished off by him,” Subburathinam said.
Durai Karuna also explained how Sengottaiyan shaped EPS’s political career. “EPS was once caught in a case in Siluvampalayam, Salem. It was Sengottaiyan and Erode’s Muthusamy who helped him through Salem advocate Kannan. They told him he needed protection, and the only way was politics. That’s how EPS was made Siluvampalayam branch secretary way back in the 1970s,” the political analyst recalled.
Party workers in the western region recalled that Sengottaiyan was behind the rise of EPS in their districts.
“At one point, in the early 2000s, Sengottaiyan controlled appointments, handing out union and district level posts. After EPS lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Tiruchengode, it was Sengottaiyan who made sure he gets a seat to contest in 2006. But, he lost again. Nevertheless, he once again got a seat from Edappadi in 2011,” a union-level functionary in Salem told ThePrint.
The functionary added that “EPS was sacked as Salem west district secretary in 2010, but, within a year, he got a ticket to contest in the election”.
Nevertheless, Subburathinam said EPS cannot be compared to seniors like Sengottaiyan. “EPS may have become CM, but he is no comparison. Sengottaiyan and O. Panneerselvam worked under Amma’s direct command. It was a one-woman show, with military discipline. Today, without Amma, the party is like a cow without a rope,” he told ThePrint.
AIADMK’s spokesperson R. Babu Murugavel refuted the claims, saying that the party leadership is supreme, irrespective of positions held by the seniors and their experience.
“Even Amma stripped Sengottaiyan of his party posts and removed him from the cabinet in 2012 and he was sidelined until her death. It was EPS, who brought him back to the cabinet and made him the education minister,” he said.
Although EPS had been in the shadows of the party seniors, former minister C. Ponnaiyan told ThePrint, EPS soon rose in the ranks by winning the loyalty of the party workers and consolidated his grip over the party in the Kongu region. “In politics, everybody is raised by a senior leader, but it is all about how one takes it forward and rises to leadership. EPS is among those who learnt the art of politics and rose to the leadership with his own strength. Although he was removed from party positions, he soon entered the inner circles of Amma’s Aivar Ani (five-member core committee) and he played a major role as minister between 2011 and 2016,” Ponnaiyan, a founding member of AIADMK, said.
Rise of Sengottaiyan
Sengottaiyan rose from rumblings to command a presence in the AIADMK with decades of experience as both a grassroots organiser and cabinet heavyweight.
After winning the election in 1977 from Sathyamangalam, he shifted his constituency to Gobichettipalayam in 1980, from where he won seven times.
Marudhu Azhaguraj, former editor of AIADMK’s mouth piece Namadhu MGR and Namadhu Amma, said Sengottaiyan had a reputation for planning election campaigns. “He was always a planner at the constituency level, chalking out routes when there was no infrastructure. If Sengottaiyan planned it, it would go right. Even in setbacks, he was both a grassroots organiser and a leader.” Marudhu said.
Sengottaiyan served as transport minister between 1991 and 1996 under Jayalalithaa and agriculture, IT and revenue minister between 2011 and 2012.
In 2012, Sengottaiyan was dropped from the cabinet and his party post.
Durai Karuna recalled that Sengottaiyan was invited by DMK leaders that time, which he quietly refused. “He was invited by DMK leaders as a mark of the respect he commanded across the party lines. But, he chose to stay in AIADMK despite being sidelined.”
He remained sidelined until Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016. In a turn of events, Sengottaiyan was inducted into the EPS cabinet as education minister in 2017. He was also AIADMK headquarters secretary between 2006 and 2012 and later, presidium chairperson in 2017.
Now, stripped of party positions by the very leader he once helped climb up the ladder, Sengottaiyan finds himself standing at a political crossroads.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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