Chennai: The DMK is gearing up to strengthen itself in the western districts of the state by aligning with Kongu Velalar parties ahead of the local body elections, a move which will shut the doors for Dalit parties like the VCK which are under fire from the Kongu outfits.
The DMK has initiated talks for alliance arrangement with Kongu Velalar parties which are strongly opposed to Dalit outfits in the communally sensitive western districts, which had seen honour killings and banning of literary works.
VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan, despite his criticism of DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin had said he is open to alliance with the DMK. The VCK is harshly criticising the AIADMK government and expressing opinions similar to the DMK on major issues like the Cauvery dispute. But, the VCK would have to make a U-turn and lose its credibility to join company with parties like the KMDK.
The DMK’s poor performance in the Kongu region is one of the major reasons for its failure to capture power in the state as the alliance fell short of just 20 seats to get a majority.
The Kongu belt comprising Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Tiruppur, Nilgiris and Coimbatore made the big difference as the tally of the AIADMK in the regions other than the Kongu belt is only 95, while the DMK front has won 91 constituencies in those regions.
But, in the Kongu region, the AIADMK has got 39 out of the 46 seats, the DMK obtained only five seats and its ally Congress two. The advantage gained by the DMK, which won 49 of the 89 seats in the northern region, was totally lost by its Kongu debacle.
The Kongu Velalar parties in the region had to go it alone in the Assembly elections as neither the AIADMK nor the DMK admitted them to their front.
The parties were not able to win any seats, but garnered a few thousand votes in each constituency, especially in Salem, Tiruppur and Erode.
For the local body elections, DMK has began talks with the Kongu Makkal Desiya Katchi which aligned with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP alliance did well in the western region in that Parliament elections and the KMDK leader E.R. Easwaran secured 2.76 lakh votes pushing the DMK to the third position. Four corporations — Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Salem and Erode — out of the 12 corporations in the state fall within the Kongu districts.
