Chennai:
After nine years, Tamil Nadu’s MDMK has formally snapped ties with DMK’s Secular Progressive Alliance at a general council meeting in Chennai, accusing its longtime ally of attempting to quietly install an AIADMK government after the assembly election results, a charge the DMK denies.
“DMK humiliated us. We have stomached all insults until now,” MDMK chief Vaiko told NDTV.
The MDMK alleged that after the election in which the AIADMK won 47 seats by aligning with what the resolution called “Hindutva communal forces”, certain “behind-the-scenes political deals” had gone against the people’s mandate. Attempting to prop up such a government had left the DMK’s own secular-alliance slogan meaningless, the MDMK said.
Vaiko’s party is now preparing to back Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s TVK. “I like Vijay’s simplicity, humility and transparency. With many DMK allies with the TVK, Vijay will win the 2029 polls like a magnet,” he said, adding his party’s decision is not an “opportunistic” move.
“I am a man of principles,” Vaiko said.
He told NDTV the DMK also planned to take a few leaders of his party, so they had to make a decision.
“I’m not opportunistic is something that I have proved in so many ways. No party has taken steps to protect the environment and resources of Tamil Nadu like the MDMK,” he said. “I am not giving up Dravidian ideology. We are committed to it. My life and soul are dedicated to Dravidian ideology.”
He alleged the BJP-led Centre’s imposition of language on states will harm the nation.
“I do hope the TVK will oppose the BJP whenever necessary, not unnecessarily. Vijay is eradicating two evils – corruption and commission that have spoiled Tamil Nadu,” Vaiko said.
He denied any fissure within the MDMK ranks, though one of the party’s MLAs signalled he may stay with the DMK. Vaiko himself would remain a part of the Opposition bloc INDIA.
The MDMK and the DMK started working together in December 2017. They called the partnership a defence against communal forces and a safeguard for the Dravidian movement’s ideological core.
Today’s resolution has ended the alliance with the MDMK general council saying that “office-bearers and cadres have expressed their view that the party must no longer continue in the DMK-led alliance.”
The DMK has denied humiliating the MDMK or engineering any backroom arrangement to install an AIADMK government.
The MDMK contested the Sirkazhi and Kadayanallur assembly constituencies on the DMK’s symbol as part of the alliance arrangement and won both seats. However, differences surfaced after the election over the party’s political direction and its evolving stand on the ruling TVK government.
