Veerapandi in Salem district has been the citadel of one family for the past five decades.
Of the 13 elections held since 1957, the family of the late DMK strongman ‘Veerapandi’ S. Arumugam and his step brother S. Palaniappan’s family, which owes allegiance to the AIADMK, have been in the fray ten times and won nine of them.
This time the contest is between Arumugam’s son ‘Veerapandi’ A. Rajendran, who heads the Opposition party’s Salem East district unit, and his cousin and S. Palaniappan’s daughter S. Manomani of the AIADMK.
How did the family rivalry begin?
The story starts with a local satrap named Solai Gounder who had four sons from his two wives: S. Palaniappan and S. Kandasamy from the first wife, and S. Arumugam and S. Kuppusamy from the second.
Arumugam, attracted by Anna’s speeches, joined the DMK at a very young age.
He tasted success in his maiden attempt in electoral politics, winning the election from Veerapandi in 1962. He went on to repeat the feat in 1967 and 1971.
But, Arumugam and Palaniappan got into a fight over a family property in 1970, leading to irreconcilable differences. To counter Arumugam’s influence, Palaniappan and his son ‘Poolavari’ Sukumaran joined the AIADMK as soon as MGR launched the new outfit.
Shot dead
A year later the two were shot dead when they were travelling back to their village on a two-wheeler. Arumugam and Kuppusamy were accused, but were later acquitted by the court.
The feud was revived when P. Vijayalakshmi Palanisamy, Sukumaran’s sister, won both the 1980 and 1984 elections on the AIADMK ticket.
Direct face-off
The family members, however, faced off directly on the poll arena for the first time during the 2001 election and it has been a see-saw battle.
In 2001, S.K. Selvam defeated Arumugam, his uncle, by 30,000 votes while five years later, Mr. Rajendran overcame the challenge from Vijayalakshmi Palanisamy. In 2011, Mr. Selvam defeated Mr. Rajendran.
In fact, during the 2011 election, the fight spilled over to the neighbouring Sankagiri constituency, where Ms. Vijayalakshmi defeated Arumugam by a comfortable margin.
