Locked party offices, police barricades outside district headquarters, veteran leaders resigning in despair and rival camps fighting for control of symbols and signatures, the crisis inside the AIADMK is no longer confined to the Assembly arithmetic that briefly shook Tamil Nadu after the elections. It has now spilled into the party’s grassroots, exposing how the desperate post-poll attempt by sections of the old guard to re-enter power through an alliance with Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) is itself beginning to unravel.

What began as an internal rebellion by a faction led by former ministers S P Velumani and C Ve Shanmugham – initially projected as a “pragmatic” move to support Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay in exchange for Cabinet space and political relevance – is now facing legal uncertainty, resistance inside the TVK itself, and growing instability within the AIADMK organisation.

The irony is difficult to miss. Just days earlier, another extraordinary backchannel idea of a possible DMK-AIADMK understanding to keep Vijay away from power had collapsed under public backlash, ideological contradictions and distrust among allies. Now, the second “backdoor route” being explored by sections of the AIADMK leadership is also running into obstacles.

Across Tamil Nadu on Monday, the split widened visibly. After Villupuram, Cuddalore, Pudukkottai and Karur, an AIADMK office in Dindigul was also locked amid fears of clashes between cadres loyal to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and the rebel faction led by Velumani and Shanmugham. Police prevented both camps from entering the office.

The district itself has become a symbolic battleground. Natham Viswanathan, once a powerful minister who went aloof for nearly a decade after central agencies probed him over alleged Rs 1,000-crore corruption, and Dindigul Srinivasan, once key AIADMK strongman, now stand on opposite sides of the conflict. Viswanathan has aligned with the rebel faction while Srinivasan remains with EPS. Viswanathan who was away from active politics was reportedly close to some of the biggest corporate firms backed by Delhi.

As tensions escalated, the Velumani-Shanmugham camp intensified efforts to convene an emergency AIADMK general council meeting, hoping to capture organisational control of the party itself. Their supporters have begun collecting signatures from executive and general council members across districts and claim to have secured more than 1,000 signatures so far.

The strategy reflects the rebels’ larger calculation: if they can demonstrate numerical strength inside the party structure while simultaneously positioning themselves as indispensable to Vijay’s coalition government, they could potentially weaken EPS permanently and emerge as the AIADMK’s new power centre.

The road ahead, however, is far from simple.

The rebel MLAs continue to face the possibility of disqualification under anti-defection laws after supporting the TVK government during the trust vote despite the AIADMK whip directing them to oppose it. The EPS camp has already approached the Speaker seeking action.

AIADMK MP Dhanapal warned on Sunday that if the Speaker failed to act within three months, the faction would move court seeking disqualification of the 25 rebel MLAs. “Through the court, their posts will be stripped,” he said, adding that fresh elections could then follow.

Inside the TVK too, there is visible discomfort over how much space should be given to the rebels.

Senior TVK figures, including general secretary N “Bussy” Anand and strategist John Arokiasamy, are understood to be opposed to inducting AIADMK rebels into the Cabinet immediately. Their argument, according to senior TVK leaders, is that outside support offers stability without importing the baggage of a collapsing Opposition party with tainted names into a first-time government still trying to establish its own identity.

Another camp led by powerful TVK leader and minister Aadhav Arjuna is believed to favour a broader accommodation of the rebels, arguing that formal coalition participation would provide Vijay with greater numerical security inside the Assembly.

If negotiations progress, sources said the rebel AIADMK faction could seek four to five Cabinet berths instead of 7 to 8 they expected initially.

But even that possibility is creating unease among some TVK leaders who fear the young ruling party could quickly become vulnerable to the same old power calculations voters appeared to reject in the election.

The anxiety extends beyond the AIADMK rebels. The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), which currently supports the government from outside, is also exploring a possible entry into the coalition. Senior TVK leaders privately admit that the party’s rapid rise among Dalit youth has already begun eating into the VCK’s traditional cadre base.

The relationship between VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan and Arjuna, both of whom once shared political proximity before Arjuna’s exit from the VCK orbit, continues to generate speculation inside both camps.

Meanwhile, the emotional cost of the AIADMK split is becoming increasingly visible. Veteran AIADMK leader S Semmalai resigned from the party on Monday, expressing anguish over the infighting consuming the movement founded by M G Ramachandran and later led by J Jayalalithaa. “The events that have unfolded since the elections have caused great anguish,” he wrote, asking whether this was truly “the fate” of the party built by MGR and Amma.

Semmalai said he had remained loyal despite being sidelined after Jayalalithaa’s death but could no longer continue amid the present crisis. His resignation carried the exhaustion of an older AIADMK generation now watching the party drift through legal battles, resort politics, factional wars and coalition negotiations merely days after voters decisively pushed it out of power once again.

This election disrupted a certainty enjoyed by the DMK and AIADMK for several decades. What followed has revealed something deeper: not merely defeat, but the inability of the old political bosses to accept their defeat and irrelevance. And now, even their shortcuts back to power appear unstable.