It is at what is probably pegged its lowest moment in the last five decades that a book on the AIADMK is out now. A teen, 19-year old law student Sanjay Senthilnathan, the author of the book ‘The Dravidian Phoenix - The Inside Story of Tamil Nadu’s Longest-Ruling Party’, says there is no doubt that the party has been a major influence in Tamil NAdu’s politics, and it was this that urged him on to write a book.

Senthil claims that he has been interested in politics since his school days, which set him on the path of law as well. About his book, he says: “There have been academic books on leaders of the party and they focused more on the persona of the leaders than the achievements of the party. My friends in West Bengal (where he attends law school) were curious about leaders of Tamil Nadu and their knowledge was mostly limited to the personalities. But, I thought there should a book that focused on the history, welfare programmes and achievements of the AIADMK as a whole.”

Further he says he wanted to make the history readable, not a tome that no one will bother reading, and therefore went in for a concise history of the party. “My book is about 114 pages. Gen Z would be able to read the book in one go. I relied on the news reports that were published in The Hindu for verifying any information that I came across.”

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami has written the foreword for the book, and youth wing leader V.P.B. Paramasivam helped him with research, says Senthil, who has also spoken to many people from the party.