Senthil Balaji Arrest: DMK Paying For Arrogance?

In 2021, after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) triumphed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, a bunch of us journalists were having a WhatsApp chat.

When the talk of the incoming cabinet came up, we all put out a list of names that we believed would make the ministerial cut.

There were five of us in that group, and in the four of our lists the name Senthil Balaji, who had won from Karur constituency, was not there.

Our reasoning was this: even though Senthil Balaji (who had moved (returned) to the DMK from the AMMK in 2018 and had smartly won the Aravakurichi by-election in 2019 under the DMK ticket) was a solid political force in the Kongu belt, we in our collective wisdom felt that Chief Minister M K Stalin would not blood him immediately in his first ever cabinet.

We felt that after his own no-holds-barred attack on Balaji (he was in the AIADMK then) in the 2016 election campaign — something which is now hot on the WhatsApp circuit — Stalin would be circumspect in his approach.

For, the allegations that Stalin had fired against Balaji could not be put down as typical election campaign mud-slinging. 

They were specific and the language was acerbic. After all, even late J Jayalalithaa had sacked him as the minister and relieved him of his party responsibilities in 2015.

Though he managed to get the AIADMK ticket, Jayalalithaa did not give him any ministerial berth. She ensured that he was kept at a distance considering the severity of the allegations (and a case was pending against his name.)   

So, we all thought Stalin would be politically wise and wouldn't take any brash decision on Balaji considering that this was his first-ever shot at the chief ministership.

But when the ministerial names were released, the Karur strongman's name was not only there but he was put in charge of the departments of electricity, prohibition and Excise.

We were taken aback, and one member of the group, the oldest and veteran hack, was the most surprised. "This is political arrogance of the highest order," he said and added: "One day this will come back and haunt them."

More prescient words had not been spoken. For, DMK finds itself hoisted with its own petard now as Balaji has been secured by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Though the principal case against him is the bribe-for-jobs scandal when he was the state transport minister in Jayalalithaa's cabinet between 2011 and 2015, the word out is that the IT and ED raids over the last week or so at his place have yielded plenty of material to pin him down for long.

Regardless of what happens in the case, there is more than an element of surprise of how Balaji became so indispensable for Stalin and his family that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister even brazened it out by visiting him in the hospital after his drama-filled arrest on Wednesday. 

"Senthil Balaji was not only close to Stalin but also to his entire family. That is why they all come across as so desperate," says K Ravi, a political observer.

"Even in the AIADMK, his loyalty was more to the Sasikala family than Jaya," he adds.

Balaji always had a preternatural understanding of the power centres in both the AIADMK and the DMK. He also knew which way the political wind was set to blow. "It explains his party hopping strategy".

The Rise And Rise Of Senthil Balaji

Having started with the MDMK in 1995, he quickly switched ranks to side with the DMK just months before it romped to power in the state in 1996. By 2000, Balaji switched loyalties to the AIADMK, and as it happened, the party had a relatively surprise win in the 2001 state elections.

But by 2011, Balaji had become a leader in his own right and became a minister for the first time. As a transport minister, he became infamous for cutting deals and there were plenty of unseemly allegations as he and his brother (Ashok Kumar) were widely believed to run the department as their own turf. 

Jayalalithaa did not hesitate to drop him when the murmurs became an insistent cry and she also divested him of all party posts.

"She was distrustful of him," says an old AIADMK hand.

She saw in him "Yond Cassius lean and hungry look". She considered such men dangerous. She also did not deem it fit to include him in her 2016 cabinet.

But after her death, when the AIADMK plunged into chaos, Balaji chose to throw his lot with Sasikala and T T V Dhinakaran. He soon understood however that that political boat was not meant for long distance, so jumped ranks again and went back to the DMK in 2018.

The swiftness with which he managed to wangle a party ticket to contest from Aravakurichi in the 2019 by-election was quintessential Senthil Balaji. 

In his second coming in the DMK, Balaji played his cards even more adroitly. His understanding of the politics of Kongu belt and his grassroots efficiency helped him get close to the top-brass.

In 2021 state elections, he was a major force in the DMK, helping the party make impressive inroads in the region where it had been historically weak. Balaji himself won from Karur, and also ensured that in Aravakurichi, his previous turf, BJP state president Annamalai lost.

In that battle, Balaji may also have bitten more than he can chew now.

He Brought The Vehemence Of A Convert

"Senthil Balaji always brings to the table the vehement loyalty of a new convert," says the AIADMK insider.

"In the DMK too his first allegiance was to the family than the party. That is how he got the portfolio of excise and prohibition".

The control of TASMAC, the cash-cow of the state and also for the party, was with him. That a perennial party-hopper was put in charge of it shows how important he was to the DMK top brass.

The popular gossip in power circles is that Balaji enjoyed direct links with the Stalin family. Those rumours seem true in the light of the fact that DMK is sticking its neck out to save him even though the case against him seems strong.

Balaji, the grapevine says, may also be knowing too much about the first family financial transactions. Hence this show of backing up.

Tamil Nadu ministers finding themselves at the wrong end of corruption scandals is not exactly new. Jayalalithaa was convicted for the same.

Karunanidhi was infamously accused of 'scientific corruption' by the Sarkaria Commission. But a sitting minister getting arrested amidst sensational sequence of events is something of a first, and marks a new low in a state that is forever plumbing them. 

Propriety demands that Senthil Balaji should be divested of his portfolio. But the state Chief Minister is instead visiting him in hospital and putting out statements in support of him. 

The DMK, it seems, has still not learnt its lessons. More embarrassment for it may be on its way.