Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi: Walking the tight rope

Less than a year ago, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) was a well-knit, cadre-based, and ideology-centric Dalit outfit in Tamil Nadu. The unflinching support of the Adi Dravidars, also known as Paraiyars, a major Dalit subsect in the State, had transformed it into a formidable Dalit entity and an indispensable partner in any political coalition in the Dravidian land.

Although its vote share (less than three per cent) is nowhere close to the major Dravidian parties, namely the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which together account for more than 60 per cent of the votes, its vote transferring capacity in a polarised environment amps up the winning chances of any alliance.

It is strong in the northern districts, where it contests politically against the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a major mobiliser of Vanniyars, a Most Backward Caste (MBC). Both communities are socially antagonistic.

However, a few embarrassing developments from within and outside, recently, have put the party in the dock. By the time it reacted, the damage was done. The party’s credibility suffered a significant dent among its allies in the DMK-led combine.

In the distant past, any alliance that Dravidian parties had with a Dalit outfit was frowned upon by non-Dalit political parties, which are dependent on the support of Other Backward Castes (OBCs). The OBCs, who account for nearly 75 per cent of the electorate, hold the key to success. Ironically, discrimination against Dalits was part of the political equation in a State where social justice has always been a key electoral plank. Even Dalit party allies were reluctant to use the portraits of Dalit leaders during campaigning.

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The tradition was broken when Tamil Maanila Congress leader, the late G.K. Moopanar, roped in the VCK, then a social movement, into his alliance for the 1999 general election. With it joined another major Dalit outfit, Dr. K. Krishnassamy’s Puthiya Thamizhagam (PT), a party of the Pallars, now known as Devendra Kula Vellalars. They then joined the DMK-led front in the 2001 Assembly election. These two alliances in a way rewrote the dynamics of Dravidian politics vis-a-vis Dalit parties in Tamil Nadu.

Challenges and then emergence

But the biggest challenge for VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan has been the consolidation of disorganised Dalit subsects and differences within the Adi Dravidar community. After a quarter century of experimental politics, including a third front called Makkal Nala Kootani in 2016, minus the two Dravidian parties, the party redefined its political priorities to emerge as a strategic player in the State’s complex coalition politics.

Its shift from a Dalit exclusivist outfit to a mainstream political entity has accomplished what the Dalit leaders have been longing for: dignity. Besides the VCK and the PT, smaller outfits such as the Era. Athiyaman-led Adhi Thamizhar Peravai, a party of the Arunthathiyar subsect, have also benefited from this sociopolitical churning.

The VCK leadership says that its anti-Hindutva ideology has been pivotal in its support to the DMK-led combine, which swept the 2019 and 2024 general elections and the 2021 Assembly election.

Also, for the first time, a Dalit party in alliance with a Dravidian major managed to retain two Lok Sabha seats: Thirumavalavan in Chidambaram and VCK general secretary D. Ravikumar in Villupuram. It has four MLAs, including a Muslim and an MBC candidate, and won in two unreserved constituencies.

DMK leader M.K. Stalin is well aware of the critical value of the alliance. He cannot afford to upset the applecart as the 2026 Assembly election is just a year away. The stakes for the DMK are high. So, Stalin is walking the extra mile to keep the alliance he stitched in 2019 intact, despite the manoeuvres of the BJP and the AIADMK to dismantle it.

With the anti-BJP sentiment still holding sway in the State and a weakened AIADMK struggling to find its moorings, the DMK-led alliance is not on the back foot. However, the VCK seems to be, especially after developments such as the brutal murder of State BSP president K. Armstrong, the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy in which most of the victims were Dalits, and a controversy over “share in power” triggered by Aadhav Arjuna, one of its erstwhile deputy general secretaries. (Aadhav, who was initially suspended by the party for six months, subsequently resigned). Anti-DMK forces tried to weaponise these issues to drive a wedge in the DMK-VCK relationship. And, they nearly succeeded.

Speaking to Frontline, Ravikumar said that there was a sinister design to dismember the alliance, which has been denying Hindutva forces a foothold in Tamil Nadu. “We were the target of certain manipulative forces attempting to break the alliance that stands on anti-Hindutva ideology. Disturbing the alliance will lead to political instability and subsequent saffronisation as we saw in Uttar Pradesh. We do have criticisms against the DMK government but not against its political ideology, which is crucial today to counter the dangers of majoritarianism.”

Danger still present for VCK

He questioned the AIADMK’s credibility, adding that it was not above suspicion. “They discreetly support the BJP in Delhi while opposing it here. Vijay’s TVK [Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagal] is someone’s project with a specific agenda.” He also said that the “danger for the VCK” from within and outside was far from over, but did not elaborate. The alliance has survived, but with a scar.

As per the last available Census data, the Dalit population in the State is between 19 and 21 per cent, in which Adi Dravidars are 62 per cent followed by Pallars (17 per cent) and Arunthathiyars (14.83 per cent).

The VCK’s aim to aggregate all Dalits under one identity is ambitious mainly because of subsects and internal differences. Pallars in the southern districts and Arunthathiyars in the west have their own political affiliations. VCK’s stand on sub-categorisation by the State has distressed Arunthathiyars, who enjoy 3 per cent internal reservation in the overall 18 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes. The VCK has clarified that it is only against the creamy layer concept in SC reservation, but that has not found takers.

Some tiny but significant groups of social media influencers, especially from the Adi Dravidars, are disillusioned with the VCK for not being aggressive in handling issues such as the Armstrong murder and the Kallakuruchi hooch tragedy. They want the party to lead an alliance of Dalit and like-minded outfits in the quest for power. What they forget is the VCK’s failed attempt in 2016. Thirumavalavan realised then that the time was not ripe for such adventures.

That said, any discussion on Adi Dravidar politics would not be complete without a reference to film director Pa. Ranjith. His occasional but aggressive outbursts, specifically after the murder of his mentor Armstrong, question the existing caste narratives. The cocktail of his best creative screen offerings and Dalit politics has created a connection with a growing section of Dalit youth that believes that the social justice rhetoric of the Dravidian movement has begun to sound hollow.

This section believes that the movement has ignored the social and political contributions of their tall leaders and instead sided with the OBCs, their oppressors. To them, the success of any Dalit party in alliance with any Dravidian party is transient and would never empower Dalits in real terms.

Aadhav, a former DMK sympathiser and member of the family of Santiago Martin, the controversial lottery baron, joined the VCK after the DMK abandoned him for undisclosed reasons. As a non-Dalit, he enjoyed extraordinary patronage in the VCK and soon was made its deputy general secretary. But his utterances in public on “share in power” embarrassed the DMK more than it did the VCK.

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Prof V. Arasu, former head of the Tamil department of University of Madras, said: “It is a fake experiment to allow a non-Dalit like Aadhav to rise meteorically in a Dalit party’s organisational system that has been structured by Dalits and for Dalit empowerment. Vote aggregation should be the primary objective in first-past-the-post electoral politics.”

The VCK knows where it stands in the bipolar Dravidian politics: while the DMK is silent on power sharing, the AIADMK has rejected it. Both parties, which have enjoyed power alternately for more than 50 years, feel that the call for power sharing will tempt others.

Prof. G. Palanithurai, an academic activist, told Frontline that power-sharing was a mere myth in this era of “market-driven” politics. “Those who have the resources to mobilise a majority, can bargain, win, and rule. In this milieu, the VCK has to retain its sociopolitical character for survival.”

This political reality makes the situation complex for any Dalit entity. As far as the VCK is concerned, balancing between Dalit exclusivism and political mainstreaming within the context of Dravidian politics is not going to be easy.

It also has to contend with the stratagems of both the BJP and the AIADMK which are keen on breaking the DMK alliance by any means. And if the politics of caste polarisation gains in strength, a political realignment cannot be ruled out.