A decade after entering the political landscape dominated by the Dravidian parties and projecting himself as an alternative force, actor-turned-politician Vijayakant took the greatest gamble of his political career on Thursday evening.
By announcing that his party, the DMDK, would contest the ensuing Assembly polls alone, Mr. Vijayakant has staked his claim to be the next chief minister. The numbers are definitely not on his side. Still, he has risked everything that he has got and as a strategy, through his wife Premalatha, he has asked “like-minded outfits” to approach his party.
If one went by the 2011 Assembly poll results, the Dravidian majors together command a vote share of over 60 per cent. A new front, the People’s Welfare Front comprising the MDMK, the CPI, the CPI (M) and the VCK, has also come up on the horizon with coalition mantra – another effort to end the DMK and the AIADMK political hegemony of nearly five decades.
The PMK, considered a Vanniyar-dominated outfit, has also set its ambitions high by projecting its chief ministerial candidate in Anbumani Ramadoss.
It is in this backdrop, Mr. Vijayakant’s resoluteness to go it alone assumes significance. When his party contested 234 constituencies in 2006 elections, the political climate was different. Crucially, the State did not witness such a multi-cornered contest then. And so he entered the fray with anti-corruption as the poll plank.
While the party managed eight per cent of vote share, all the candidates, except Mr.Vijayakant, lost. In 2009 Lok Sabha polls also, his party contested all the 39 seats, but won none. However, his vote share went up to 10 per cent.
It was with reluctance, and under pressure from cadre, Mr. Vijayakant joined the AIADMK front in the 2011 Assembly elections. Winning 29 seats, he became the Leader of the Opposition. In the run-up to the elections, he was not willing to share the dais with AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and they never campaigned together. It spilled over to the Assembly and the acrimony between the two parties endured till this day.
Drew a blank The short camping with the BJP did not help his party in anyway two years ago. Contesting in 14 constituencies in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, his party again drew a blank despite being part of the NDA that has formed a government at the Centre.
He, perhaps, has come to the conclusion that the DMK and the AIADMK are losing ground and therefore has chosen to challenge two of the State’s tallest leaders, M. Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, who have ruled the State alternatively since 1989.
He surely believes that his time has come. That is why despite pressure from second-line party, who favoured a tie-up with DMK, the ‘Captain’ has chosen to be the king.
His alliance with the DMK could have tilted the scales in the latter’s favour. He, perhaps, thinks that DMK’s heir-apparent M.K. Stalin doesn’t enjoy mass support as much as his illustrious father and that there has not been any indication as to the successor to Ms. Jayalalithaa in all these years. With his bold announcement, Mr.Vijayakant has thrown everyone into a tizzy.
