VCK will ask for more seats in 2026 Assembly election, says Thol. Thirumavalavan

Thol. Thirumavalavan. File
| Photo Credit: M. Samraj

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) founder and Chidambaram MP Thol. Thirumavalavan has said the party would try to prevail upon the DMK to allocate more seats to it to contest in the 2026 Assembly elections as a constituent of the Secular Progressive Alliance. The VCK, however, would never be part of an alliance that merely offered more seats, he emphasised.

Addressing a public meeting in Villupuram on Sunday (March 16, 2025) night to celebrate the VCK earning the status of an Election Commission-recognised political party, he said “all the 23 parties in the DMK-led alliance,” including the VCK, Congress, and the Left parties, have played a role in the formation of the Secular Progressive Alliance. There is no question of moving out of the alliance to another one that offered more seats.

Recalling the arduous journey of steering the party from being a radical organisation to an important cog in the wheel of electoral politics in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Thirumavalavan said: ”We had no intention to contest in elections. It was violence against Dalits that changed the position of the organisation regarding participating in elections,” he said.

“We joined the third front headed by G.K. Moopanar (Tamil Manila Congress) in 1999. He offered us five Parliamentarly constituencies but I returned three constituencies to him because I did not know the importance of contesting in more seats,” he said.

Mr. Thirumavalavan recalled that an organised spate of large-scale violence had unfolded on polling day in Chidambaram. “As many as 15 villages were burnt and more than 90 youths were injured. Country bombs and stones were hurled. I place this ‘State party’ recognition by the Election Commission of India at the feet of the younger brothers who still bear the scars of that violence, which spilt their blood in Chidambaram.”

Minister for Forests K. Ponmudy, MDMK founder Vaiko, CPI(M) State secretary P. Shanmugam, CPI State secretary R. Mutharasan, and VCK Villupuram MP D. Ravikumar participated in the event.