Chennai: For over two weeks, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), an Ambedkarite party in Tamil Nadu, has been needling its alliance partner, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), amid talks of a rift emerging within the alliance.
However, VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan has been quick to diffuse the situation, reaffirming that the alliance remains intact despite differing views on governance issues.
The friction between the two parties centres on VCK’s desire for a share of power in the government, a demand made and reiterated ever since they entered electoral politics in 1999.
However, tensions escalated last week when VCK’s Deputy General Secretary, Aadhav Arjuna, made comments about Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s son and Tamil Nadu’s Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.
In a 21 September interview with a Tamil magazine, Aadhav Arjuna, referring to Udhayanidhi’s background in cinema, asked why VCK leader Thirumavalavan couldn’t be made deputy CM when individuals with less experience from the film industry were being considered for such a prominent position.
Though Tamil Nadu’s elections are next expected to be held in 2026, political analysts believe VCK’s actions are a strategic bid for the party to demand more seats.
Political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy, though, has ruled out the possibility of the VCK walking out of its alliance with DMK since there are no other viable options for the party.
“It would be suicidal for the party to walk out of the DMK alliance. But there is discontent among a section of the party workers that the VCK is not being given enough number of seats to contest in, and the voice of Aadhav Arjuna is a reflection of this,” Duraisamy said to ThePrint.
Despite the party’s deputy general secretary giving back-to-back interviews to Tamil television and YouTube channels, Thirumavalavan made no effort to intervene. After nearly a week of silence, on 26 September, he finally addressed the situation in an interview with a Tamil television channel and at a party event in Chennai, stating that the alliance with the DMK was stronger than ever.
Speaking at a party event Thursday, a video of which is available on YouTube, he said that the VCK will get power “one day”, but till then, being in an alliance with the DMK is “safe” for the party.
During a TV interview, Thirumavalavan backed Aadhav Arjuna’s comments, but added that this was not the right time to be making such demands.
“What Aadhav Arjuna said is not something new. It has been our party’s stand since it was formed. However, the way he articulated it might have been wrong and he has been advised about the same,” Thirumavalavan said.
In one of his interviews Monday, Aadhav had also said, “DMK could not have won without the support of VCK in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu.”
This had triggered the DMK to react.
Without taking names, DMK Deputy General Secretary and Nilgiris MP A. Raja, while speaking to media persons, urged Thirumavalavan to take action against the VCK functionary for violating “alliance ethics”.
Later, when asked if any action would taken against Aadhav, Thirumavalavan said he would discuss the matter within the party.
On Friday, media persons in Delhi asked CM Stalin about the alleged rift between DMK and VCK over the latter’s demand of sharing power, to which he said it was not an issue since it’s one of the core principles of their party and “there is nothing new in it”. Stalin was in Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the pending funds for various projects in the state.
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‘BJP & RSS primary enemy’
Though VCK general secretaries D. Ravikumar and Sinthanai Selvan have expressed their support for maintaining the alliance with the DMK on X Monday, a significant section of the VCK cadre supports Aadhav’s sentiments. Party insiders say discussions about power-sharing and increasing the number of seats for assembly and Lok Sabha elections were quite common.
“These discussions happen very often during our internal meetings. But our leader has explained to us that we’re not ready to demand power sharing since both the Dravidian parties have a larger chunk of vote share,” a source in the VCK told ThePrint. “It is a distant dream, but not the appropriate time for us to raise such a demand on a public forum.”
However, regarding Aadhav Arjuna’s comments and criticisms of the DMK, party sources have confirmed that Thirumavalavan sought an explanation from him.
“He replied that his interviews were in response to the criticism for Thirumavalavan’s speech on power sharing and coming to power,” a senior VCK leader told ThePrint.
During the Thursday party meeting, Thirumavalavan reminded the party cadre who the primary enemy is right now—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“The alliance with the DMK right now is based on principle and not for power-sharing. The alliance has been formed to defeat the BJP and make sure that they don’t gain ground in the state. If we were to break away from the alliance, it would pave the way for the BJP and RSS to gain foothold in the state, which is not good for the state or a party like us that has been fighting against Sanatana Dharma,” Thirumavalavan told his cadres.
How it started
In the aftermath of the spurious liquor deaths in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district in June this year, Thirumavalavan had announced this party would hold a rally on 2 October to advocate for the prohibition of liquor. On 10 September, the VCK chief extended an invitation to the opposition party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), to participate in this rally.
Soon after, speculations ran wild that the VCK was testing the waters for a potential alliance with the AIADMK for the 2026 assembly elections.
Just as the storm over the alleged rift within the ruling DMK alliance seemed to be calming, on 14 September, a video was posted on Thirumavalavan’s X account. In the video, he was seen addressing a party meeting, discussing power-sharing and the prospect of coming to power.
However, within minutes, the video was deleted, fuelling further speculation about his intentions in posting and then quickly deleting it. He later explained that it was posted erroneously by his IT team.
The video of Thirumavalavan’s speech did not sit well with the ruling DMK, but he ensured that harmony within the alliance was restored after a meeting, on 16 Septmber, with Stalin upon the CM’s return from the US.
When asked about the VCK’s comments, DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi said that the alliance with the VCK had remained intact for three consecutive elections and would continue into the 2026 assembly election as well.
“Comments by the second rung leaders of VCK doesn’t matter when the leader of the party has taken a strong decision to be with DMK,” he said.
As a separate party, the VCK has full liberty to hold rallies for the prohibition of liquor and to protest against the government in the interest of people’s welfare,” RS Bharathi added. “In fact, our leader has even agreed to send members of our party’s women’s wing to participate in VCK’s conference on liquor prohibition.”
Moreover, VCK leaders, along with their cadres, are set to attend the DMK’s platinum jubilee celebration in Kancheepuram on 28 September. While the DMK officially marked its platinum jubilee on 17 September, the upcoming event is viewed as a display of strength for the DMK-led alliance in the state.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)