Ponnaiyan reinstated in ADMK

Pulling him out of the wilderness, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa reinstated C Ponnaiyan as the party’s political advisor on Monday.

Pulling him out of the wilderness, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa reinstated C Ponnaiyan as the party’s political advisor on Monday. Ponnaiyan, who was a finance minister in her erstwhile government, was dropped unceremoniously during the May 2006 Assembly elections, for alleged misdemeanour.

His sudden elevation comes in the wake of rumours that he was being wooed by the DMDK, a fledgling outfit led by actor-turned-politician Vijayakant.

Recently, during the birth centenary celebrations of MGR, Jayalalithaa had lashed out at Vijayakant for attempting to “usurp” the MGR legacy, claiming to be his “true heir”.

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Ponnaiyan was part of the M G Ramachandran coterie and a minister from 1977 when the AIADMK won its first state election. He was made a minister during MGR’s second term as well. Even during the brief 27-day tenure of Janaki Ramachandran as Chief Minister, Ponnaiyan was a minister. MGR’s wife Janaki took over the reins after the death of her husband in 1984. But the party saw a split, with Jayalalithaa leading the rival faction.

Ponnaiyan had announced his retirement from active politics until the 2001 Assembly elections when Jayalalithaa persuaded him to contest from the Tiruchengode seat.

He was also the party presidium chairman, a post from which he was removed after he fell out with Jayalalithaa towards the end of her tenure.

Her move to get Ponnaiyan back into the AIADMK fold , it seems, is meant to thwart attempts of the DMDK to lure the MGR loyalists once sidelined by her to reach out to voters.