Minor ally TVK quits DMK alliance, sulking CPI(M) yet to decide on Stalin’s 5-seat offer

Protesting the big brother attitude of the ruling DMK and charging the Stalin government of being run by officers aligned with the RSS, the Tammizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK), a minor ally of the DMK-led front, quit the combine on Sunday, while the Marxist party is yet to decide on the five-seats offer of the Chief Minister to contest the Tamil Nadu assembly election.

The resistance from the Marxists and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) pushing for a larger share, is making it difficult for the DMK to complete the seat-sharing exercise.

Advertisement

“The DMK’s approach towards us displayed a big brother attitude. We cannot tolerate our party being treated as such. We are leaving the alliance not because our demand for more seats than the last time was turned down, but because our 10-point charter of demands was not accepted,” TVK president T Velmurugan told reporters in Chennai. Espousing Tamil nationalism, the party has its support base among the OBC Vanniyar community, particularly in Cuddalore and Chidambaram as well as Villupuram districts.

“We have been with the DMK since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. During the first seat-sharing negotiation, the DMK offered us a single seat, and we demanded more. We also submitted our charter of demands, including a legislation for priority in employment for Tamils, socio-economic caste enumeration and exclusive 10.5 quota for the Vanniyars among others. The government has ignored them,” he said, explaining the reason for deserting the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA). Further, he alleged that Chief Minister MK Stalin is not in control of the administration being run by officers aligned with the RSS.

“We will not join the communal and divisive BJP-led NDA,” he asserted, adding that the TVK would explore the possibility of entering an alliance which accommodates the party’s charter of demands.

Meanwhile, for the CPI(M) the exit of the TVK has provided a small window of opportunity as the party maintained that it would revisit and discuss the 5-seats offer made by the DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin. In 2021, the CPI(M) which contested 6 seats in the company of the DMK was rattled by the DMK’s present offer.

“The Chief Minister requested us to accept 5 seats since new entrants to the alliance must be accommodated. We told him to get back after discussing his offer at the party state committee,” CPI(M) Tamil Nadu secretary P Shanmugam told reporters after a meeting with Stalin at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam in Chennai. “Earlier, the state committee decided to settle for 6 seats instead of pushing for more,” he said, adding that our party would continue in the DMK-led alliance to defeat communal forces.