Thirumavalavan’s dilemma over Cabinet berth stirs debate in VCK

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder and Chidambaram MP Thol. Thirumavalavan is faced with a dilemma over whether or not to join Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s cabinet, after having extended outside support to the single largest party, the TVK.

Party sources said while Mr. Thirumavalavan does not want to formally join the State Government, the party’s office bearers are urging him to rethink it.

Acknowledging the Congress’s decision to leave the DMK alliance and join the Vijay cabinet effectively has ended the INDIA bloc, sources said the VCK leadership believes the significant decline it faced in the election could be traced to it playing a supportive role to the DMK in the last five years on contentious caste issues. This created the perception that the party has not protected the interests of the SC/STs.

The sources claimed the TVK is urging Mr. Thirumavalavan join the cabinet and provide his experience and wisdom to the largely inexperienced, first time legislators.

Yet, Mr. Thirumavalavan reportedly doesn’t fancy taking up the offer. But many within feel the “golden opportunity” shouldn’t be missed.

VCK general secretary D. Ravikumar in an X post on May 10, said there was a larger question of whether the “broader political resistance against the BJP” could be diminishing due to the TVK government functioning with a slim majority and the DMK-Congress break up, break in alliance of DMK and the Congress. This raised questions over the necessity of maintaining their anti-BJP stance.

“If a ruling dispensation functioning with a fragile majority chooses to avoid direct confrontation with the Union Government, its opposition to the BJP is inevitably likely to weaken. In addition, anti-BJP sentiment within the DMK camp itself may begin to lose momentum, shaped by an emerging internal question: Now that the Congress is no longer our ally, is it still necessary to oppose the BJP with the same intensity as before? Thus, although the BJP may have suffered defeat in the electoral arena, the broader political resistance against it may nonetheless begin to diminish,” he said.