CHENNAI: The migration season is continuing in Tamil Nadu politics, after MDMK became the latest party to announce its exit from the DMK-led camp on Saturday. However, while its leader Vaiko claimed that the decision was unanimous, its two MLAs, arguably the most prized possession when negotiating the contours of the potential alliance with the ruling TVK, refused to join the flock.
Addressing reporters after the party's general council meeting in Chennai, Vaiko said his party would support the Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay-led TVK in the upcoming bypolls and work towards a friendly electoral understanding with it in the local body elections that is around the corner. But without the two MLAs, which is valuable for the ruling alliance, it remains to be seen what the TVK would decide during the due diligence round.
Vaiko said the MDMK had remained a loyal ally of the DMK for the past nine years, never publicly criticising the MK Stalin-led government, solely to prevent the BJP from gaining a foothold in Tamil Nadu. But the DMK’s alleged attempt to forge a post-poll understanding with the AIADMK was an "unforgivable political fraud", he said – strong words for a leader who had once claimed that he was the first one to back Narendra Modi for the prime minister post.
He justified the support extended to the TVK, claiming that its government had eliminated corruption and the "commission culture", was committed to social justice, reservation and the two-language policy, and was firmly opposed to the BJP.
As DT Next had reported a day ago, the two MLAs — TM Rajendran (Kadayanallur) and Senthil Selvan (Sirkazhi) – who were elected on the DMK’s Rising Sun symbol skipped the meeting and informed the leadership that they would continue to be members of the DMK in the Assembly.
Vaiko said Senthil Selvan had informed the media that he had joined the DMK after skipping the MDMK's high-level committee meeting. The other MLA, Rajendran sent a message affirming that he would continue as an MDMK member while putting off the decision on his position inside the Assembly, said Vaiko, adding that he had urged both of them to resign if they chose to leave the party so that the people may decide afresh in the by-elections that would follow.
Narrating the sequence of events that led to his party members contesting on the DMK symbol, Vaiko criticised the DMK's handling of seat-sharing negotiations, alleging that his party was pressured to contest only four seats, that too on the DMK's symbol, unlike other allies who were allowed to contest on their own symbols.
Asked about future political alignments, Vaiko, who has been an ally of the DMK, AIADMK, BJP, Congress, and Left parties over various elections, ruled out returning to the DMK fold, and said the party would continue supporting the TVK as long as it remained firmly opposed to the BJP and upheld its stated principles.
Responding to allegations that he and his family had received Rs 50 crore from TVK and amassed properties, Vaiko dismissed them as "absolute lies" and announced that he would file defamation cases against both the individual who made the allegations and the newspaper that published them.
He defended his personal integrity by recalling his opposition to the Sterlite project and claimed he had refused repeated attempts by Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal to meet him. He also referred to observations made by former Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Justice M Liberhan on his integrity during litigation relating to the Sterlite issue.
On policy issues, Vaiko urged the Tamil Nadu government to abandon any move for a fresh tribunal on the Mekedatu issue, arguing that the existing legal position already protected Tamil Nadu's rights. He reiterated the MDMK's long-standing demand for total prohibition, welcomed reports that the government was moving to end the contract system for sanitation workers, and said the party would support the government whenever it took decisions in the public interest while criticising it whenever necessary.