Chennai: As tremors rocked the State’s political landscape over VCK general secretary Thol Thirumavalavan’s open invitation to the AIADMK to take part in the anti-liquor conference organized by his party’s distaff side at Kallakurichi on October 2, he himself reiterated his stand at Villupuram on Wednesday, triggering more speculations on a possible political realignment.
Though the VCK has been firmly in an alliance with the DMK since 2017, the invitation to the AIADMK was construed by many as the first call for snapping the ties facilitating a change in the composition of alliances for the 2026 Assembly polls though both DMK leaders and Thirumavalavam specifically denied it on Wednesday.
With news channels and social media outlets trying to make sense of Thirumavalavan’s supposed move to use prohibition as a tool to take on the DMK government, they went around seeking the views of political leaders of all hues causing a political conflagration.
BJP leader and Union Minister of State L Murugan said that it looked like an attempt by the VCK to put forth some demands to the DMK that is holding absolute power in the State and also as a bid to intimidate the alliance leader and ruling party.
When Naam Tamilar Katchi chief coordinator, Seeman, was asked about the raging issue at Ramanathapuram by media persons, he wondered how the AIADMK, which has not advocated prohibition and whose rule saw liquor flowing in the State as usual, could be roped in as a partner in a fight against alcohol.
Alleging that the present government was hauling up salesmen at TASMAC outlets for poor sales and even penalizing them, Seeman asked who owned the distilleries, suggesting that some DMK leaders were deeply involved in the liquor trade, to drive home the point that the VCK had been associated with it so long.
Could an electoral alliance be formed on the basis of parties’ support for total prohibition, he asked and said that he would join the alliance if the VCK could form it and fight the elections. The idea of fighting against alcohol was good but it was important as to who were the partners in the battle, he said.
Though Thirumavalavan, while giving a clarion call for all parties believing in temperance other than the BJP and PMK, the president of PMK, Anbumani Ramadoss, too, responded by not ruling out the possibility of his party joining the war against alcohol. He was happy that Thirumavalvan had at least now taken such a strident stand against liquor after being with the DMK so long.
Minister for Health and Family Welfare, M Subramanian, did not see anything wrong with the leader of an alliance party inviting the DMK's prime rival, the AIADMK, to join hands with it for a cause and expressed the hope that it would not affect the alliance.
Other DMK ministers, too, exuded confidence in the VCK staying in the alliance and the organization of the conference or the invitation to the AIADMK could be construed as an antagonistic move against the ruling DMK.
AIADMK organization secretary D Jayakumar found in the VCK’s move an expression of the pent up helplessness over the party’s inability to come out openly on several issues against the ruling party and leader of the alliance. The VCK was unable to speak out on attacks against Dalits and when the government failed to identify the culprits who threw human excreta into a water tank at Vengaivayal in Pudukkottai district despite the advancement in technology.
Thirumavalavan, however, reiterated his demand for total prohibition even on Wednesday by saying that the DMK should honour its election promise. He asked why Tamil Nadu could not impose total prohibition when States like Bihar had implemented it.
Rumours were also spread about a general disillusionment of the VCK leader over the manner in which they were treated by the DMK, particularly in the allocation of posts relating to various welfare boards. Though the VCK had asked for chairmanship of a couple of boards, the DMK did not oblige, the grapevine had it.
