Chennai: Three-time Rajya Sabha member V Maitreyan on Wednesday quit the AIADMK blaming its leadership, and joined the ruling DMK in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin.Immediately, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami expelled Maitreyan from the party.Maitreyan claimed that for the AIADMK, “Delhi (BJP) is the switch board” which decided matters and said several leaders were disgruntled in the main opposition party.Recently, quitting the AIADMK, a former Minister, A Anwar Raja and former MLA, V R Karthik Thondaiman joined the DMK.At DMK headquartes ‘Anna Arivalayam,’ here, Maitreyan, who held the post of AIADMK’s organisation secretary, joined the ruling party in the presence of senior leaders including Duraimurugan and K N Nehru and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.In October 2022, Maitreyan was expelled from the AIADMK for supporting expelled leader, former chief minister, O Panneerselvam and he joined the BJP in June 2023.On September 12, 2024, he quit the BJP and rejoined the AIADMK.Sixty-nine year-old Maitreyan, a medical oncologist, began his political career in the Saffron party in the 1990s and for more than 2 decades, he had been in the AIADMK.He was sent to the upper house thrice by the AIADMK beginning in 2002. His last term in the Rajya Sabha was from 2013 to 2019.Asked why he quit the party, Maitreyan told reporters that the way the AIADMK was functioning was not proper and said that even the AIADMK-BJP alliance was announced only by Union Minister, BJP leader Amit Shah.He was not happy with the AIADMK and some had the party under their control. Though he had been given the position of Organisation Secretary, he was not utilised for party work, the former MP claimed. “That was why I quit the AIADMK,” he said.Maitreyan said his decision to join the ruling DMK was to “guard the Tamil land, language and the state’s dignity (Mann, mozhi, maanam kappom, a DMK slogan).”On the ongoing campaign of AIADMK general secretary Palaniswami, he claimed that the huge turnout was “staged.”By witnessing such a crowd, the AIADMK chief considered himself to be a leader on a par with party founder M G Ramachandran and late CM J Jayalalithaa.Quoting a proverb, he said Palaniswami could never hope to rise to the state of those two late leaders.Maitreyan claimed “many confusions” in the AIADMK which includes those related to the top leadership and on utilisation of talent, and that many office-bearers were disgruntled.Further, he alleged that “Delhi (BJP) is the switch board that decides and the AIADMK leadership is bound by their directives.”Not only that, Shah said that there would be a “coalition government” and had mooted a “Common Minimum Programme” if the NDA were to win 2026 Assembly polls, Maitreayan claimed.Hence, there was no clarity, he said pointing to divergent stance of AIADMK and BJP on a host of issues including the 2-language policy.Praising the leadership of Chief Minister Stalin, he expressed confidence that the DMK would win more than 200 out of the total Assembly 234 seats and retain power.
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