India, May 28 -- The AIADMK is a political party with nine lives. Since its formation in 1972, this outfit that traces its roots to the Dravidian Movement has survived splits to stay in the race for office. But that was when Tamil Nadu politics was a Dravidian duopoly. May 2026 is different - politics in the state is undergoing a transformation. Can the AIADMK, weakened by multiple splits, retrieve lost ground and endure? It all depends on how the senior leadership of the AIADMK responds to the crisis. As per the Tamil Nadu electoral pattern, the party was poised to win the April polls. But voters preferred the political start-up, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), whose win recalled the AIADMK's stunning success in 1977, five years after it was founded by screen icon MG Ramachandran. Vijay's stardom recalled MGR's popularity and like the AIADMK, the TVK too is a non-cadre populist tent. It won because it was successful in attracting the anti-incumbency vote and sections that have historically voted for the AIADMK, for instance, women. Meanwhile, the prospect of another five years in the Opposition ranks has driven AIADMK MLAs to explore ways to exploit the fractured verdict. First, a section of the party plotted to back the TVK, which lacked a simple majority, while the official bloc reportedly explored ties with arch-rival DMK. Four MLAs have already resigned from the assembly to join the TVK and, presumably, fight bypolls on the whistle symbol. Just as a meltdown appeared inevitable, the divided AIADMK leadership has agreed to sail together and survive the storm. Obituaries were written for the party when its leader J Jayalalithaa died in 2016, but it survived. Former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami steered the ship in choppy waters, but his reluctance to share power with peers is responsible for the party's current precarity. A revival will depend on whether he can reunite various groups, win the trust of factionists, and prop up the party as a credible opposition....