For the people

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) founder-leader and popular yesteryear Tamil actor Vijayakanth’s death has sent his fans and supporters in a spot of bother. The 71-year-old actor turned politician was on ventilatory support after testing positive for Covid-19. Prime Minister Modi, Chief Minister M K Stalin among others condoles his demise In his condolence message, Stalin expressed shock and grief over Vijayakanth’s death and hailed him as an achiever; both as an actor and as a leader in public life. Vijayakanth achieved what no other political leader or party in Tamil Nadu was able to in over half a century: to show categorically that there existed a space for an alternative to the Dravidian politics of the DMK and the AIADMK. None of the other political parties—the Congress with the backing of successive governments at the Centre earlier, or the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the backing and the muscle of the current dispensation, or the many regional parties—could match the vote share that the DMDK managed in the successive elections. In 2006, the first election that the party contested, it received 8.38 per cent of the vote share. Only Vijayakanth won that election from the Vriddhachalam Assembly constituency. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the party managed a 10.3 per cent vote.