VCK’s Needling of DMK Continues Amid Tensions

 Chennai: The VCK that patched up with its coalition leader, the DMK, when its leaders called on Chief Minister M K Stalin on September 16 after pushing the ties between the two parties to the precipice with its President Thol Thirumavalavan making scathing attacks on the ruling party and also a veiled demand for share in power when Stalin was in the US, has seemingly gone back to square one.

Though Thirumavalvan had changed his demand for prohibition in the State, citing an election promise of the DMK, and called for a national policy on prohibition after meeting Stalin on September 16, thus putting at rest speculations of the party’s plan to walk out of the State’s DMK-led ruling alliance, a latest interview by the party’s deputy general secretary Aadhav Arjuna to an YouTube channel has reviewed the controversy.

In the interview that went viral, Arjuna, who joined the VCK recently but is said to be the person behind the organization of the party’s massive conference at Trichy in January, makes a straight attack on State Minister for Youth Affairs, Udhayanidhi Stalin, saying that he was aspiring to become the Deputy Chief Minister though he came into politics after a long time in cinema.

He also said that the DMK would not be able to win elections in the northern Tamil Nadu without the VCK’s support and claimed that he addressed the sentiments of the grassroots level workers of his party, who had already started questioning when their leader would become the Chief Minister.

Apart from VCK general secretary and Member of Parliament D Ravikumar distancing himself from the views expressed by Arjuna in the interview, DMK supporters trolled him on social media.

One of them mocked at the ‘research’ that Arjuna had been repeatedly referring to repeatedly and claiming that the DMK could not win elections without the VCK suggesting that the DMK should face elections independently.

Arjuna, introducing himself as the sports administrator and entrepreneur, is the son-in-law of Santiago Martin, the ‘lottery king’ in the State who had bought electoral bonds worth Rs 1,300 crore and had been charged with financial irregularities by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.

Party insiders said that Arjuna was the one who misguided Thirumavalvan to take on the DMK by taking up the issue of Prohibition with the hope that it would not only earn the VCK more supporters but also force the DMK to give in to its demands.

Since the meeting of VCK leaders with Stalin took the wind of the VCK sail with the DMK agreeing to send two representatives for the conference to be held by the VCK’s women’s wing to fight against alcohol and narcotics on October 2 at Kallakurichi, Arjuna has started speaking to YouTube channels disparaging the DMK, sources said.

They also expressed the doubt if Arjuna had the explicit approval of the VCK high command, which was only substantiated by the statement of Ravikumar. However, they also point out that Arjuna has a personal rapport with Thirumavalavan and might not risk shooting from the hip.