DMK unlikely to be swayed by BJP’s Tamil card in VP election

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK is unlikely to be swayed by the Tamil sentiment card of rival BJP, which has fielded RSS loyalist C P Radhakrishnan for the September 9 vice-presidential election.

The DMK also has some reservations about obliging its ally Congress, which is stated to have suggested the Dravidian party’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Tiruchi Siva as the INDIA bloc candidate for the VP election.

The DMK’s disinterest in BJP nominee CPR should not come as a surprise, considering its history in the Presidential polls held under similar circumstances.

Asked to back the candidature of celebrated Tamilian and former president APJ Abdul Kalam for a re-run in 2012, the then DMK-led former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi stood by his alliance commitment and supported Congress’s pick Pranab Mukherjee, who trumped NDAs PA Sangma.

No wonder, DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi told DT Next that his “thalaivar (leader) MK Stalin will take a decision like Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) did.”

Former DMK Parliamentarian TKS Elangovan was more vocal when he told news agencies that CPR was a RSS man and his candidature needed to be viewed politically, and not linguistically, probably, responding to reports about BJP senior and defence minister Rajnath Singh requesting Stalin’s support over the phone.

Meanwhile, DMK MPs with knowledge of the discussions admitted privately that the name of Tiruchi Siva emanated from Delhi, mainly the Congress circles, after one of its senior leaders from Tamil Nadu allegedly refused to run for the office of V-P.

DMK is caught in a dilemma on if it must field Siva or back a non-BJP Tamil candidate in what will be a losing election to avoid the criticism it faced in the distant past after the rumoured unsuccessful bid of GK Moopanar to win the race for the PMO or the failed candidature of Abdul Kalam who was pitched by Mamata Banerjee’s TMC for the presidential race in 2012.

Significantly, the high and mighty of the DMK got into a huddle with the INDIA bloc colleagues at Congress president Mallikarjuna kharge’s residence in Delhi late Monday evening to discuss their V-P candidature. Understandably, the DMK was not so averse to the idea of a ‘Tamil’ candidate being pitted against the BJP’s CP Radhakrishnan to outmanoeuvre the BJP-AIADMK alliance’s Tamil card in the run-up to next year’s Assembly poll.

CPM state secretary P Shanmugham, like TNCC President K Selvaperunthagai, questioned the BJP’s move and said that CPR’s candidature was motivated by the 2026 polls and Tamils will not benefit in any way from it.