How a small Tamil Dalit party found its space in KCR’s national blueprint

Though the VCK, which in the 2016 Assembly elections was part of a third front of Left-leaning parties that ended up breaking the DMK’s votes and ensured its defeat, Thirumavalavan came back into the DMK fold in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The VCK, now one of the preferred allies of DMK chief and Chief Minister M K Stalin, not only won two Lok Sabha seats in 2019 but has four MLAs in the Assembly. The two MP seats that Thirumavalavan and his confidant D Ravikumar, writer and senior VCK leader, won significantly altered the VCK’s prospects.

Thirumavalavan also continues to be a strident opponent of the BJP, cautioning the DMK whenever they are seen as going soft on the party.

Talking to The Indian Express, Ravikumar said they had several reasons to accept KCR’s invitation to the Dalit conclave.

“Mainly, we wanted to honour the Telangana government’s initiatives. They spend roughly 13 per cent of their budget on Dalit welfare, which is five times more than the national average. They introduced a number of programmes, including Dalit Bandhu, which grants 10 per cent of government contracts to Dalits and offer Rs 10 lakh to Dalit businesses. We consider each of these to be game-changing policies,” said Ravikumar, adding that the state also turned all Dalit schools into “special schools that are currently the best in the state.

“Ten years ago, I requested a mere 1 per cent reservation for Dalits in government contracts in Tamil Nadu, but that was never taken into consideration,” he said.

In 2019, however, around the time that KCR called on Stalin, VCK had warned the DMK against joining hands with the Telangana CM, calling him “leader of the BJP’s B team”. Asked about this, Ravikumar said circumstances have compelled KCR’s party to take on the BJP. “So they are no longer the BJP B-team,” he said.

According to Ravikumar, VCK continues to hold the position that any Opposition alliance without the Congress would benefit the BJP.

As the party plans to play a significant role in the Opposition front in the lead-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the VCK, which had a 1% vote share in the last Assembly elections, is stepping up efforts to increase its visibility outside of Tamil Nadu. The VCK now has office-bearers in Telangana, Andhra, Karnataka, and Kerala, in addition to holding an influence among Tamils in Mumbai and several pockets of Maharashtra. Unlike in Kerala and Karnataka, where the party is confined to the Tamil population, in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the VCK has Telugu-speaking cadres in its party office.

In Tamil Nadu, VCK owns Namadhu Thamizh Mannu (Our Tamil Land), a monthly publication, and a TV channel called Velicham, which is yet to take off in a full-fledged manner.