Tamaraikani rebelled against party general secretary J Jayalalitha after she reportedly pulled him up for shoddy arrangements in the Sivakasi Lok Sabha constituency. The MLA contested as an Independent against the party's official candidate, V Ramaswami, former judge of the Supreme Court. However, he polled only 36,997 votes and lost his deposit. He came a cropper despite hurling charges including a casteist campaign against Jayalalitha.

Accompanied by his wife and two sons, Tamaraikani called on Jayalalitha on Saturday evening at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai. According to a party press release, he expressed regret for his anti-party activities and appealed to Jayalalithato take him back into the AIADMK fold.

In the State Assembly, Tamaraikani, who was elected from the Srivilliputtur Assembly constituency six times, was recognised by the Speaker recently as the head of a separate AIADMK party called AIADMK (Tamaraikani).