The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) on Sunday, August 17, elected its founder S Ramadoss as party president during a general body meeting, deepening the rift between his faction and that of his son and former president Anbumani Ramadoss.
The meeting, attended by over 4,000 members including district secretaries and Ramadoss’s daughter Gandhimathi, passed 37 resolutions. Among the key decisions, the party conferred exclusive rights to Ramadoss to conduct alliance talks, barring all other leaders from such negotiations. Another resolution stated that only the founder had the authority to convene general body meetings - a rebuke to Anbumani.
The party’s disciplinary committee also presented a report citing 16 charges against Anbumani, escalating the internal tussle. The resolutions included a call for a statewide caste census and the immediate implementation of 10.5% reservation for Vanniyars, a key demand of the PMK’s core voter base.
The developments come just days after the Anbumani faction held a parallel general body meeting on August 9, where a resolution was passed to extend his presidency until August 2026. The founder’s camp dismissed the meeting led by Anbumani as “illegal.”
The power struggle surfaced in July when Ramadoss removed Anbumani from the party’s executive committee.