Making Anbumani minister was mistake, says Ramadoss

CHENNAI: The rift between PMK founder S Ramadoss and president Anbumani Ramadoss further widened with the senior leader levelling several allegations against his son and criticised him for lacking in leadership qualities.

Speaking to media persons in his Thailapuram residence near Tindivanam on Thursday, the senior leader regretted his decision to propose Anbumani for the cabinet minister post in 2004.

"It was a mistake to make Anbumani a minister at the age of 35. I broke my promise (of not accepting government posts) by heeding to requests from family members and former party president GK Mani,” he said.

Commenting on the party's decision to enter into an alliance with the BJP in the last Parliamentary election, Ramadoss said he intended to join the AIADMK alliance but had to decide otherwise after Anbumani and his wife Sowmiya requested to go with the BJP-led alliance.

It may be recalled that Sowmiya Anbumani unsuccessfully contested from the Dharmapuri constituency. In its first list, the PMK had fielded Arasangam but later replaced him with Sowmiya.

"If we had an alliance with the AIADMK, we would have won three seats and they (AIADMK) would have won 6 or 7. The PMK-AIADMK alliance would have been a natural one. The day after Anbumani and Sowmiya prayed for an alliance with the BJP, Annamalai (then state president of BJP) came to my house without my knowledge," he recalled.

Making more unsavoury allegations, Ramadoss said Anbumani once threw a bottle at his mother when she spoke in favour of Mukundan Parasuraman (Anbumani's nephew), who was appointed as party's youth wing president by Ramadoss. "He missed and the bottle only hit a wall."

The fissure between the father and son became public when the former announced Mukundan as the youth wing president and Anbumani opposed it. A few weeks later, Ramadoss removed Anbumani from the post of president and declared himself as the president.

Citing that Anbumani was appointed president six years ago after requests from a family member and then president Mani, Ramadoss said Anbumani lacks leadership qualities. "At party meetings, he never allowed office-bearers to speak or express their concerns. When I founded Vanniyar Sangam, and later the party, I asked cadres to criticise me," he said.

Ramadoss further alleged that his son misled party district secretaries by spreading false information. "He told the district secretaries that he would be removed from the party. This was a lie, and because of this lie, only 8 of 108 district secretaries attended the meeting. He also prevented office-bearers from taking part in the meetings of the social media wing," Ramadoss said.

MUKUNDAN RESIGNS, WRITES TO ANBUMANI

Mukundan Parasuraman, Anbumani's nephew, has sent a letter to his uncle saying he is resigning from the post of youth wing president due to "personal reasons."

However, Ramadoss told media persons that his grandson continues in the post.

JUNIOR TO MEET WITH PARTY RANKS

Anbumani will meet party functionaries over three days starting Friday in Sholinganallur.

It is unclear whether it is aimed to gather support of the ranks.

Anbumani supporters say those surrounding Ramadoss are misleading him.

"At a meeting on Wednesday, Ramadoss talked of Anbumani as CM. Next day, he regrets making him union minister," they said.