CHENNAI:
VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan on Friday questioned why the previous DMK government had not registered a case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay in connection with the Karur stampede that claimed 41 lives.
Speaking at a marriage function of a party functionary in Dharmapuri, Thirumavalavan said Vijay’s delayed arrival at the venue had resulted in a massive crowd gathering, eventually leading to the stampede and deaths.
“All those responsible for the tragedy should have been named in the case,” he said, questioning why the DMK had acted leniently towards Vijay. Thirumavalavan said the DMK might have underestimated the TVK at the time and asked why it had not used the Karur incident to politically expose Vijay.
“When Vijay targeted the DMK, it should have reacted,” he said. Thirumavalavan recalled that he himself had criticised Vijay earlier, alleging that the TVK leader had RSS affiliations, and said he had not then had confidence in him.
However, Thirumavalavan said his assessment of Vijay had changed after observing his political approach. He noted that Vijay had not sought the support of the DMK, BJP or PMK, but had reached out to the VCK, Left parties and Congress after the elections.
He also criticised the DMK for its handling of alliance partners, saying its failure to maintain cordial relations had contributed to several parties leaving the alliance.
The VCK chief said the DMK-Congress relationship had become strained during seat-sharing talks before the Assembly elections. He cited the MDMK being made to contest on the DMK’s symbol and the failure to allot seats to Makkal Needhi Maiam leader Kamal Haasan, while the DMDK was later brought into the alliance and given a large number of seats.
“These developments did not go down well with the parties that had been with the DMK for a long time. The DMK is 100 per cent responsible for forcing its allies to leave the alliance,” he said.
Thirumavalavan also recalled that Aadhav Arjuna, who was then with the VCK, had proposed an action plan to project him as the next Chief Minister and urged him to leave the DMK-led alliance.
He said he had rejected the proposal as breaking away from the alliance could have strengthened the BJP-AIADMK combine in Tamil Nadu.
“If I had changed my stance then, the history of Tamil Nadu politics would have undergone a change,” Thirumavalavan said.