May 21, 1997. India played a one-day international (ODI) match against its traditional rival, Pakistan, at the famous M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai. On this scorching day, Pakistan’s opening player Saeed Anwar made a blazing batting effort, scoring his highest-ever of 194 runs in ODI matches. It was another matter that Pakistan won the match and Anwar was named “man of the match.” However, then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who, as a cricket enthusiast, had followed the match, chose to call someone else the “man of the match.” That person was S. Thirunavukkarasu (now known as Su. Thirunavukkarasar and in the Congress), who declared that day that he was prepared to “take on politically” Karunanidhi’s bête noire and then general secretary of the AIADMK Jayalalithaa (then spelt Jayalalitha).
Against the backdrop of former School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan recently setting a 10-day deadline for AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami to initiate the process of bringing all members of the Dravidian major back to the organisation, there has been a renewed interest among sections of political leaders and journalists in Mr. Thirunavukkarasar’s revolt 28 years ago. Then too, the Dravidian major was out of power.
On May 19, 1997, the rebel leader, while returning to Tiruchi from Pudukottai, where he had been to attend his niece’s wedding, received the news that he had been sacked from the AIADMK. He told The Hindu then that he was “shocked and surprised by the announcement.” Even when he called on Jayalalithaa on May 15 to invite her to the wedding, he had no inkling of the things to come. “I take it as a gift, given in her own style, on the occasion of my family wedding,” he commented. It was only on the eve of the 1996 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections held in April-May that he had gone back to the Dravidian major for the third time by merging his party — MGR-ADMK — with the AIADMK in March. His third and final innings in the AIADMK had lasted a little more than a year. Yet again, he was expelled by the party supremo, who had showed him the door in August 1988 as well as in July 1990.
Thirunavukkarasar. File
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
Unlike the previous occasions, Mr. Thirunavukkarasar this time had drawn greater support from a host of leaders in the AIADMK, who had fallen out of favour with Jayalalithaa. Within a few months of the party’s drubbing in the 1996 polls, many leaders, including S.D. Somasundaram, S. Muthusamy (now Housing Minister), C. Aranganayagam, and S. Kannappan (now R.S. Rajakannappan and Forests Minister), had been organising themselves as a rival AIADMK group. These leaders had begun wooing Mr. Thirunavukkarasar, even as reports were out that all was not well for him and his followers in the party. It was against this backdrop that his expulsion had taken place.
‘DMK had no role to play’
To a query by The Hindu on Monday, Mr. Thirunavukkarsar replied that “the DMK or Karunanidhi had no role to play in my revolt. The rebel leaders’ meetings with me had generated suspicion in her [Jayalalithaa’s] mind that I too would be going out of the party,” he explained, adding that his close relationship with the founder of the Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) G.K. Moopanar was held against him.
On May 30, 1997, then treasurer of the AIADMK Sedapatti R. Muthiah (who also joined the DMK later) accused Moopanar and Karunanidhi of “being hand-in-hand in trying to split the AIADMK,” according to a report of this newspaper on May 31, 1997. Muthiah’s point was that both the Chief Minister and the TMC(M) founder were favourably disposed towards Mr. Thirunavukkarasar. To substantiate this, he referred to Karunanidhi’s description of the “man of the match” and latter hailing Moopanar as his leader.
Seven Members of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), including V.V. Rajan Chellappa (now AIADMK MLA), had followed Mr. Thirunavukkarsar, and they were also recognised as a separate group in the Upper House. On May 23, the rebel leader announced he would ‘convene’ the party’s general council on June 18 and a few days later, decided to advance it to June 4, the date to which Jayalalithaa too had rescheduled her party’s general council. Both sides had claimed to have a majority support in the council. Eventually, the two “general councils” met on June 3 in Chennai. “While Jayalalithaa held the general council at the Vijaya Sesha Mahal marriage hall in Vadapalani, I held mine at Raghavendra marriage hall in Kodambakkam,” recalled Mr. Thirunavukkarasar.
Thirunavukkarasar, who was elected ‘general secretary’ of the rebel AIADMK, shows the victory sign
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
In the meeting convened by Jayalalithaa, the expulsion of Mr. Thirunavukkarasar was endorsed with the affirmation of faith in her leadership. In the other, the rebel leader was elected the party’s general secretary. However, a few weeks later, the Madras High Court held that the general council meeting convened by Mr. Thirunavukkarasar was illegal and void ab initio as he was not authorised to call such a meeting. This ruling was given on a suit filed by Jayalalithaa.
In due course of time, some leaders in the rival camp had begun returning to the “parent organisation” led by the former Chief Minister. “I knew from the beginning that I was no match to Jayalalithaa. But the decision to oppose her was forced on me. I had to act out of necessity,” Mr. Thirunavukkarasar told this correspondent.
After many of his colleagues had abandoned the fold, he had revived the MGR-ADMK, running it till February 2002 when he merged the party with the BJP. In November 2009, he joined the Congress. “At that time, Jayalalithaa had conveyed, through her two emissaries, her invitation to come back to the AIADMK. But I had declined it, as I was clear that it would not work,” Mr. Thirunavukkarasar added.
Published – September 10, 2025 07:00 am IST
