Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi finds itself in a familiar position of having to fight for seats after DMK’s seat sharing committee reportedly informed the VCK leadership that it cannot expect to contest in more than 2 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, VCK demanded 4 seats but had said that it would be happy to settle for a minimum of three seats, one more than the number it had contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The VCK has argued that the party has grown in strength and more importantly, has contributed a lot in shaping INDIA alliance’s ideological make-up.
Addressing media persons after convening the party’s high-level committee meeting while skipping the important seat sharing talks with the DMK, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder and Chidambaram M.P., Thol. Thirumvalavan, said that the Committee discussed many issues, including strategies for the election, demands that needs to be placed to the Election Commission of India.
“It is true that the Committee members felt we should get at least 3 seats (2 reserved and one general constituency), since we first asked for four. The DMK is not pressurising us to sign the agreement immediately. We didn’t go today because our meeting was extended today,” he said.
Mr. Thirumavalavan reiterated that the party will be in the DMK alliance but said that it will insist on 3 seats.
“We will try to get 3 seats until the very end and we will contest on an independent symbol. VCK’s hard work, contribution, strength and our ideological commitment is well-known to the Chief Minister and he also understands our demand that it should be rewarded. Agreement will be signed based on this mutual understanding,” he said.
Mr. Thirumavalavan’s colleague and Villupuram M.P. D. Ravikumar, said that the “party had been contesting in just 2 seats for the last 15 years and that everyone who wants to see VCK do well electorally wants to see us contest in more seats”.
“It is not just our party members but also our well-wishers among the general public who are of the opinion that we deserve more. We will fight until the very end, but of course, the final decision will be with our leader,” he said.
Another VCK leader said that the DMK had urged one candidate to contest under the ‘Rising Sun’ symbol in 2019 since winning all the seats was important as it was the first election that the party was fighting after M. Karunanidhi’s death. However, this time around, DMK is apparently arguing that giving VCK more than 2 seats would not go down well with the Left parties.
“DMK feels that Left parties will also demand more. They also want to ensure that they are the third largest party in India which would mean that their MPs would be nominated to a number of Committees as chairman, which would increase their influence in the Parliament,” said a VCK leader.
He added that VCK’s strong ideological commitment of staunchly opposing the BJP and Sangh Parivar over the last few years has meant that the party is unable to move to the AIADMK’s camp, which voted for Citizenship Amendment Act.
“We would be destroying the pro-Dalit, pro-minority political stance that we have successfully built over the years if we ally with the AIADMK,” he said. The party has also said that Election Commission of India should hold Lok Sabha elections in just three phases instead of 7 or 8 and reduce the number of days between polling and announcement of results.
