Who is Anwar Raajhaa, the former AIADMK minister who switched sides with the DMK?

AIADMK’s organising secretary and former MP Anwar Raajhaa on Monday joined the DMK in the presence of Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin. Considered to be Ramanathapuram strongman and the minority face of the AIADMK, he has been critical of the party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami for renewing the ties with the BJP.

“Ideologically, the AIADMK had followed the leadership of C.N. Annadurai and other Dravidian leaders. I have been in politics since the days of the anti-Hindi agitation. The AIADMK is now totally against those ideas. It has deviated from its core ideology and fallen into the hands of the BJP,” Raajhaa told the reporters after joining the DMK.

Recalling Union home minister Amit Shah’s statements in the recent past that there would be a coalition government in Tamil Nadu after the 2026 assembly general elections, Raajhaa said that the home minister never endorsed Palaniswami as the chief ministerial candidate. “Palaniswami has not been able to assert himself as the chief ministerial candidate if AIADMK emerges victorious in 2026,” Raajhaa said. He also contended that the “BJP’s agenda is to destroy the AIADMK first and then fight against the DMK.”

Raajhaa was expelled from the AIADMK as the organising secretary of the party and from the primary membership, just minutes before he joined the DMK. According to sources, Raajhaa’s exit was planned a few days before and the DMK had also accepted to take him in. AIADMK insiders say that Palaniswami tried to persuade him, which did not yield any positive result.

Considered to be the minority face of the AIADMK, the 76-year old leader had been in the party since its initial days in 1972. A staunch MGR follower and Jayalalithaa loyalist he had held several lucrative positions including the ministership and also led the Tamil Nadu minority welfare board during the AIADMK regime.

Incidentally, when the AIADMK entered into an alliance with the BJP in 1998 and later in 2004 under Jayalalithaa, he chose to remain silent and continued in the party. Sources say that he believed that there was a strong leadership and the party will emerge even after the failures. But he party under Palaniswami had continuously faced electoral debacles and the anti-BJP sentiment in Tamil Nadu, forced Raajhaa to quit the AIADMK.

Apparently he was ousted from the AIADMK in December 2021 just a day before the party’s executive committee meeting. He spoke in favour of V.K. Sasikala who was then expelled from the party by Palaniswami. He once again courted a controversy for speaking against Palaniswami in a derogatory manner. He apologised for this later. However he was not given a ticket from Ramanathapuram to contest in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections. H e was expelled from the party in 2021 for his anti party remarks and later taken back in August 2023. But again in 2024 Lok Sabha election the party did not nominate him as a candidate from Ramanathapuram. The AIADMK’s candidate P. Jeyaperumal, who contested from Ramanathapuram, had forfeited the deposit then as former chief minister O. Panneerselvam contested and won more than 3 lakh votes.

India