Durai Vaiko Quits MDMK Principal Secretary Post

Chennai: MDMK principal secretary Durai Vaiko announced that he was quitting his party post and would not attend any party meetings and discussions after attending the executive committee meeting on Sunday as he was peeved over a party leader, who has been allegedly bringing a bad name to founder Vaiko through his statements in the media and trying to demolish the party.

Taking to social media, Durai Vaiko, who became the principal secretary in 2021, said on Saturday that he did not want to continue in the post when a party functionary, unable to accept him as the leader, was taking pleasure in defaming his father and party founder, Vaiko.

In a three-page statement, released on social media, Durai Vaiko reluctance to join the party initially and explained how he was forced by circumstances arising out of his father’s health and inability to attend party engagements. When he started attending those party events, he endeared himself to the cadre, who welcomed him to lead them, he said.

However, the activities of a particularly leader, whom he did not name in the statement, was working indirectly to defame the party, which he was unable to tolerate, he said adding that he would put in his best to serve the people of Trichy Lok Sabha constituency, who voted for him in the 2024 elections.

According to party sources, Durai Vaiko, in his address at the MDMK’s trade union wing meeting on April 12, had named deputy general secretary Mallai Sathya, a long-time associate of Vaiko and made some allegations against him, which was objected to by the other party functionaries.

After Durai Vaiko stormed out of the meeting, Vaiko had taken to the mike to pay encomiums to Mallai Sathya. The next day, on April 13, the Trichy district unit of the MDMK resolved to remove Mallai Sathya from the party. Vaiko, however, was not pleased with the resolution by the Trichy district unit and also by some other district units in the following days and even expressed his reservations over the convening of such meetings and passing of resolutions.

Mallai Sathya, on his part, clarified that he had been politically associated with Vaiko since 1993 and that he would never betray him. Only death could separate us, he said.

Ever since Durai Vaiko started attending party gatherings in 2018 and Vaiko deputing him to events on his behalf giving rise to the suspicion that the son was being groomed by the father, a section of the leaders had been objecting to the move as it was dubbed as ‘dynasty politics,’ an allegation against the DMK that led to Vaiko starting his own party.

However, Durai Vaiko slowly started growing in the party and became the principal secretary in 2021. In 2024 when the DMK-led alliance allotted one seat for the MDMK, Durai Vaiko was chosen as the candidate. But he refused to contest the polls in the DMK symbol, which other smaller allies agreed to.

Finally the MDMK was given the 'Matchbox' symbol by the Election Commission and the MDMK cadre managed to popularize it in the constituency in the short time, enabling Durai Vaiko’s triumph.