S.P. Velumani | From loyalist to rebel

In India’s electoral politics, it is not uncommon for trusted lieutenants to turn against their mentors. A case in point is 57-year-old S.P. Velumani, Tamil Nadu’s former Local Administration Minister in the AIADMK government, who is now leading colleagues against the party’s general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.

In the formative years of Mr. Velumani’s career, the goodwill he reportedly enjoyed from V.K. Sasikala, the confidante of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and Ravanan, a relative of Ms. Sasikala who oversaw party affairs in the western region, helped him secure a political breakthrough. When Jayalalithaa returned as Chief Minister in May 2011, he was inducted into the Cabinet.

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Mr. Velumani’s exit from the Cabinet in January 2012 almost coincided with the arrest of Ravanan by the Coimbatore Rural Police in connection with a criminal case. He was reinducted into Jayalalithaa’s Cabinet in May 2014, and entrusted with key portfolios, including Local Administration and Rural Development, positions he held for seven years at a stretch.

The high point of his career came after Mr. Palaniswami became Chief Minister in February 2017. In fact, after the Supreme Court upheld Ms. Sasikala’s conviction in a disproportionate assets case involving Jayalalithaa, Mr. Velumani was among those who reportedly persuaded Ms. Sasikala to choose Mr. Palaniswami for the top post. Her original choice, K.A. Sengottaiyan, now a Minister in the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam government, had declined to take up the job.

Driving force

Once Ms. Sasikala began serving her prison term in Bengaluru, Mr. Velumani quickly emerged as one of the driving forces behind the Palaniswami camp. Their roots in Tamil Nadu’s western belt and affiliation to the Kongu Vellala Gounder community complemented the two leaders politically. Soon, Mr. Velumani came to be called the ‘Man Friday’ of Mr. Palaniswami, who, in turn, allowed greater space to the former to operate politically in the region. Over time, Mr. Velumani earned the sobriquet ‘Coimbatore’s Chief Minister’. From 2018 onwards, allegations were made by anti-corruption activists and his political adversaries that his relatives and aides secured high-value contracts awarded by local bodies. After the DMK formed the government in May 2021, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, which conducted searches at 42 properties in Coimbatore district, named him as an accused in an additional affidavit filed before the Madras High Court last year. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the award of contracts by the Greater Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations.

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Mr. Velumani has remained a popular figure in his constituency, owing to the network he built and the way he cultivated support among electors in Thondamuthur. However, this time, he returned to the Assembly with a margin of less than 15,000 votes — a sharp decline from his earlier winning margins of around 40,000 to 60,000 votes.

Talks of a rift between the former Minister and his “benefactor” began circulating immediately after the party’s debacle at the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Mr. Velumani had said his party would have won 35 to 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry if it had faced the electorate in an alliance with the BJP.

In the run-up to the Assembly elections, the general expectation was that the AIADMK would not return to power but do well in the western belt. But the party’s performance in the region proved disastrous. In Coimbatore district, Mr. Velumani was the only AIADMK candidate to win, in sharp contrast to the previous election when the party and its ally, the BJP, secured all 10 seats. It was in these circumstances that Mr. Velumani, along with party colleagues, including former Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam, raised the banner of revolt against Mr. Palaniswami and supported the TVK government.

Apparently, their game plan did not work, as the rebels could muster the support of only 25 legislators out of the AIADMK’s 47, falling short of the required 32. Of late, Mr. Velumani has adopted a more conciliatory tone, stating that Mr. Palaniswami is the general secretary. Whether Mr. Velumani can bounce back or fade into oblivion remains to be seen.