Reporter’s Diary: Nanjil Sampath’s Dravidian dilemma

The former go-to guy of Vaiko who had joined the AIADMK in the presence of the late Jayalalithaa and sided with Dinakaran and Sasikala after the party split last year seems to have sent feelers to the DMK, possibly, for joining the party. 

Sampath, who is popularly known as the “defender of the indefensible” for his vitriolic attack on political opponents even when their leaders put their foot in their mouth, did not disappoint spin doctors again by predicting that Stalin could become the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu. 

However, Nanjil who broke ranks with TTV for dropping ‘Dravidam’ and Anna’s principles in AMMK, may not have expected Stalin to make a somersault on Dravida Naadu (separate Dravidian state) issue. 

A day after welcoming the proposed Dravidian state comprising the four southern states, Stalin said that he had not proposed or seconded the demand for forming a separate Dravidian state, but it was misconstrued by media. 

“What would Nanjil do now?” asked many AIADMK sympathisers, reacting to Sampath’s attempted ‘patch up’. Similar overtures were made even when Sampath had joined the AIADMK a few years ago. 

Nanjil Sampath was tipped to join the DMK before he had eventually met Jayalalithaa and allegedly collected the keys of a SUV, which later earned him the moniker “Innova Sampath”.