Few politicians in Tamil Nadu have changed alliances as often, or as dramatically, as Vaiko. Over three decades, the fiery orator has crossed political rivers that once seemed impossible to ford, only to return later by another bridge. On Saturday, the 81-year-old Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) chief added another turn to that long journey, announcing that his party was withdrawing from the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance after nine years.
The decision, adopted unanimously by the party’s General Council, formally ended an alliance that began in 2017. Yet the announcement also exposed a familiar contradiction in Vaiko’s politics: while the party has walked out of the alliance, parts of the party appear unwilling to leave with him.
The MDMK’s two legislators, elected on the DMK’s symbol in the Assembly polls earlier this year, have refused to resign from the Assembly. Sirkazhi MLA Senthil Selvan stayed away from the party meeting altogether, resigned from the MDMK and announced that he would remain with the DMK. Kadayanallur MLA T M Rajendran has also reportedly expressed his unwillingness to vacate his seat. For a party built around Vaiko’s personality, it is an unusually public display of dissent.
The resolution adopted by the MDMK said the party had remained with the DMK out of ideological commitment to prevent “communal political forces” from gaining ground in Tamil Nadu and to uphold the principles of the Dravidian movement. But it alleged that during the 2026 Assembly election, attempts were made to dilute the MDMK’s independent identity despite its 32-year political history.
It also referred to the post-election efforts to install the AIADMK in power with support from the DMK after the fractured verdict, arguing that such negotiations had rendered the alliance’s claims of ideological politics meaningless.
The party resolved that it would decide its future electoral alliances “at the appropriate time”. That carefully chosen phrase has already fuelled speculation that the MDMK could eventually align with Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s TVK, although the party has made no formal announcement.
For the DMK, the exit adds to an erosion that has steadily unfolded since the Assembly election defeat. The Congress, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) have already joined the TVK-led government. The CPI and CPI(M) now extend only outside support to the TVK government but are clearly outside of the DMK’s circle.
Yet Vaiko’s departure is also deeply personal. His relationship with the DMK has always oscillated between affection and estrangement. Once considered among the party’s brightest young speakers and one of M Karunanidhi’s political proteges, Vaiko dramatically broke away from the DMK in 1994 after objecting to the elevation of M K Stalin within the party. The split triggered intense emotional reactions among cadres; several supporters reportedly died by suicide in the aftermath, believing the party’s future had been irreversibly altered.
Vaiko founded the MDMK the same year, carrying with him a section of district secretaries and a reputation as one of Tamil politics’ most electrifying campaigners. His politics since then has resembled a restless orbit around Tamil Nadu’s larger parties. In recent elections, the MDMK has played the role of a junior ally, contesting a handful of seats and never winning more than six Assembly seats in 2006 and four Lok Sabha seats in 2004.
He allied with the BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998 and remained with the National Democratic Alliance even after the AIADMK withdrew support and toppled the Vajpayee government in 1999. Gingee Ramachandran of the MDMK became a Union minister in that government.
Vaiko later joined hands with the DMK, left over seat-sharing disputes, aligned with Jayalalithaa and the AIADMK despite having been jailed for 19 months under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) during her government, returned to and moved away from the DMK again, boycotted elections in 2011, rejoined the BJP-led alliance in 2014, and eventually entered the DMK-led front in 2017.
Few politicians have demonstrated such ideological elasticity while simultaneously insisting that ideology has always guided them. Part of Vaiko’s enduring appeal lies precisely in these contradictions.
He remains among Tamil Nadu’s most gifted public speakers, capable of delivering marathon speeches that move effortlessly from Sangam poetry to geopolitics, from Tamil nationalism to world revolutions. His trademark raised forefinger, booming voice and theatrical cadence have made him one of the state’s most recognisable political performers. Admirers see passion, and critics see excess. Even his friendships have often defied political expectations. Despite frequently criticising the BJP’s policies, Vaiko maintained a cordial personal equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the years, occasionally surprising both supporters and opponents.
Inside the MDMK, however, a quieter anxiety has persisted. The party contested four Assembly seats in 2026 but had to fight under the DMK’s symbol, a compromise that Vaiko repeatedly described as painful. In contrast, his son Durai Vaiko had contested and won the 2024 Lok Sabha election on the MDMK’s own symbol. Many within the party believed the inability to retain that separate identity had reduced the MDMK to little more than an organisational extension of the DMK. Saturday’s resolution reflects that accumulated frustration. Whether it also marks a political revival remains uncertain.
The MDMK is no longer the vote-splitting force it once was. In earlier elections, its independent contests were believed to have altered outcomes in dozens of constituencies even without winning seats. Today, Tamil Nadu’s political landscape has been fundamentally reshaped by Vijay’s emergence, leaving less space for medium-sized regional parties trying to reclaim independent identities.
Vaiko has survived many political departures before. In Tamil Nadu, exits have rarely been final, and they are often paused before another alliance, another negotiation and another beginning. At 81, Vaiko has once again chosen to leave. Whether his party still possesses enough political weight to make that departure consequential is the question the coming months may answer.
Once considered among M Karunanidhi’s political proteges, Vaiko dramatically broke away from the DMK in 1994 after objecting to the elevation of M K Stalin within the party. 
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