Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s leading Ambedkarite party, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), is looking to contest the Maharashtra assembly polls and to ask its INDIA bloc ally, the Congress, to give it a few seats as it pushes to grow beyond the southern state and project party chief Thol Thirumavalavan as a national leader.
S.S. Balaji, a VCK MLA from Thiruporur, told ThePrint the party would even consider contesting alone to exhibit its strength if it didn’t get seats from the Congress. He said Thirumavalavan will try to meet Congress leaders during a visit to Mumbai next week to meet cadres. The party is still working out Thirumavalavan’s schedule for his Mumbai visit.
“We will be having discussions with the INDIA alliance. We will try to contest and definitely field candidates in Maharashtra,” Balaji told ThePrint.
By contesting in Maharashtra, the VCK will be getting into a crowded political landscape with at least three small Dalit parties—the Republican Party of India (Athawale), the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—already vying for the state’s Scheduled Caste votes along with the bigger parties.
The VCK, which has lately been asserting itself in its home state by pushing for a higher stake in power-sharing with the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), wants to expand beyond Tamil Nadu mainly to build Thirumavalavan’s status as a national leader of not just Dalits, but all backward classes. “Now, everyone has come to understand that there is a need for a leader who can stand for the downtrodden people. Earlier, people were looking for a national leader only in the north. They looked at Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, etc. as leaders for the SC and OBC communities,” Balaji said.
“But now, both SCs and OBCs have started seeing a national-level leader in our leader (Thirumavalavan),” he added.
Party leaders in Chennai say the VCK already has a basic cadre base in Maharashtra, with a unit in Mumbai for over a decade. The state goes to the polls on 20 November.
According to the party’s Mumbai unit in charge, Solomon Raja, VCK’s presence in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad has grown with many followers of Chandrashekhar Azad’s Bhim Army moving to its fold.
Also read: How VCK won with big margins in Tamil Nadu LS polls when Dalit parties in other states drew a blank
Expansion beyond Tamil Nadu
Party leaders say the VCK is also looking to expand its footprint in the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala where it already has a strong presence.
According to H.V. Chandrashekar, the party’s Karnataka unit chief, the VCK had selected a few seats in Karnataka for the 2023 Assembly elections but dropped the plan to contest upon Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s request.
Thirumavalavan campaigned for the Congress in Karnataka in the 2023 Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
As the VCK looks to expand its footprint, its Kerala unit organised a two-day South Indian conclave of Dalit-Adivasi Organisations in Kottayam on October 13 and 14.
Many Dalit-Adivasi organisations, including the Kerala Dalit Federation (KDF) and Kerala Sambhava Sabha, participated in the event. Congress MPs Kodikkunnil Suresh and K. Francis George, former Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MP E.T. Muhammed Basheer and the National Confederation of Dalit & Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR) chairman, Ashok Bharathi, also took part in the conclave.
The event discussed how they believed the Supreme Court’s recent call for the sub-categorisation of SC and ST communities was unconstitutional. The organisations also decided to hold a similar national conclave in Delhi on January 24 and 25.
“Dalits are heterogenous. The language, culture, attire and even skin tone differ from state to state. But the way the community is treated remains the same everywhere throughout history,” Thol Thirumavalavan said at the conclave on Sunday.
Party leaders said they plan to reach out to people across states.
“We are first trying to join hands with socially active organisations and people in each state. Straightaway, we can reach people,” said Balaji. He added that the party will organise liquor eradication drives in Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the next two to three weeks, similar to the conference it held in Tamil Nadu’s Kallukurichi last week.
The event in Ulundurpet was attended by members of the DMK, Congress, CPI, CPM, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), IUML, and Tamilaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK). Thousands of women also took part in the programme.
Founded in 1982, the VCK, or the Liberation Panther Party, has four MLAs in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
The party, a member of the ruling DMK-led alliance, made its most significant victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it won the two seats it contested and secured a vote share of 2.25 percent in Tamil Nadu. It was also recognised as a state party following the elections.
Though termed a ‘Dalit party’ in the past, the VCK has become more vocal in Tamil Nadu and has criticised the ruling DMK on many issues including the ongoing Samsung worker’s strike in Chennai and matters of law and order.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the party had approached the Election Commission for a common symbol to contest in southern states. However, the poll panel rejected this request, saying the party didn’t have the required vote share.
Party leaders say they have considerable influence and the party’s votes were going to alliance partners in many constituencies. “The real strength of the VCK on the ground is much much higher,” claimed Balaji.
Balasingam, VCK’s Andhra-Telangana in charge, said the party focuses on the local population and their issues and not just Tamil-speaking people in any state.
For example, in Kerala, the VCK constantly struggles to ensure basic amenities for the working class. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it’s focussing on what it calls the “anti-people stand” of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP). “We don’t have many Dalit organisations in Telangana and Andhra. So we are realising we have a lot of scope here,” Balasingam told ThePrint.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also read: Why stakes are high for BJP & INDIA bloc as Maharashtra, Jharkhand go to polls
