PMK feud escalates: Police complaint alleges Anbumani forged ECI records

In a dramatic turn in the ongoing father–son tussle in Tamil Nadu’s Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a close aide of party founder Dr S Ramadoss has lodged a criminal complaint against his estranged son, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, at Delhi’s Parliament Street Police Station. The complaint alleges that Anbumani submitted forged documents to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to illegally extend his term as party president.

Also read | Son triumphs in PMK power battle: EC hands Anbumani presidency till 2026

The move comes just two days after supporters of the senior Ramadoss staged a protest at Jantar Mantar, demanding the annulment of Anbumani's leadership and a probe into alleged electoral fraud.

PMK crisis deepens further

The complainant, PMK MLA GK Mani, alleged that Anbumani, a former Union minister, unilaterally created and submitted fake records to the poll panel. These documents purportedly backdated a 2023 general body meeting to 2022, falsely claiming an extension of his term as party president until August 1, 2026. Mani's complaint invokes charges of forgery, cheating, and criminal conspiracy, urging the police to register an FIR and hand over the case to the CBI due to its overlap with an existing corruption probe against Anbumani.

“This is not just a betrayal of party democracy but a brazen assault on the rule of law,” Mani told reporters outside the police station. He emphasised that Anbumani's actions bypassed the party's competent bodies, including the founder, and were exposed during a Delhi High Court hearing on December 4, where Justice Mini Pushkarna dismissed the ECI’s interim recognition of Anbumani's faction. The court, hearing a writ petition (No. 18311/25) filed by Ramadoss's group, refused to allot the party's iconic ‘mango’ election symbol to either side amid the “ongoing internal leadership dispute,” as stated by the ECI in its affidavit.

Succession battle turns bitter

The PMK, founded in 1989 by Dr S Ramadoss as a platform for the Vanniyar community’s empowerment and social justice causes like prohibition and caste-based reservations, has long been synonymous with the Ramadoss name. The party played a major role in securing quotas for Most Backward Classes, Arunthathiyar, and Muslim minorities in Tamil Nadu, and advocated for a 27% OBC reservation across the country.

Also read | PMK faction protests in Delhi over Anbumani's 'wrongful' presidential extension

Tensions between father and son simmered for years but boiled over in May 2025. Ramadoss declared Anbumani's three-year term expired on May 28, reinstating himself as president and demoting his son to “working president” for alleged “non-performance”. Anbumani countered by citing ECI records of a 2023 resolution extending his tenure, a move Ramadoss's camp branded as “illegal and fabricated” in complaints lodged with the ECI as early as August 2025.

The ECI's November 28 letter to Ramadoss, affirming Anbumani's presidency based on submitted documents, was a body blow to the founder. “This is the murder of democracy,” fumed Mani at the time, vowing legal recourse.

CBI angle raises stakes

Ramadoss himself instructed cadres to besiege the ECI office, calling the decision “arbitrary and unjust”. An undeterred Anbumani asserted after the December 4 court verdict, “I will remain PMK chief till August 2026. The mango symbol stays with us.” His faction eyes alliances to oust the DMK in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, while whispers of Ramadoss floating a splinter group grow louder.

At the core of Mani's complaint is a single, explosive claim that Anbumani forged a communication dated August 31, 2023 (misrepresented as 2022), without any election or selection by the party's general body. This, they argue, stealthily altered the PMK's official address and extended Anbumani's term, overriding a May 30, 2025, mandate approved by the competent democratic body.

Anbumani faces an ongoing CBI probe into a 2012-2014 corruption case involving alleged irregularities in a national rural health mission scheme during his ministerial tenure. “Given the CBI's involvement, this forgery matter must be transferred to them for a fair probe,” the complaint demands, echoing Ramadoss's public call for impartiality.

Legal threats fuel discord

Advocate K Balu, the party's spokesperson and legal advisor for Anbumani's faction, accused Mani of spreading defamatory falsehoods by claiming he had filed a formal complaint at Parliament Street Police Station regarding alleged forged documents submitted to the poll panel.

Also read | PMK founder S Ramadoss expels son Anbumani from party

“Mani has maliciously stated that I lodged a complaint in Delhi, which is a blatant lie intended to tarnish my reputation and that of our leadership (Anbumani),” Balu told The Federal. Demanding an immediate retraction of the remarks, Balu warned, “He must withdraw these slanderous statements and tender a public apology without delay. Failure to do so will leave us no choice but to initiate a defamation lawsuit against him in court.”

This development, coming mere hours after Mani’s police complaint, underscores the deepening chasm within PMK, with Anbumani's supporters framing it as yet another ploy by the founder's loyalists to delegitimise their claim to the party's helm.