I want PMK in DMK alliance to strengthen Dalit-OBC unity: TNCC chief Selvaperunthagai
Edited Excerpts:
Your recent meeting with PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss raised eyebrows. Later, you said you would welcome PMK joining the DMK-led alliance for the 2026 Assembly elections.
As I said earlier, my meeting with Dr Ramadoss was purely a courtesy call. But if you ask how there could be no politics, then yes, both of us are politicians and I am a leader of a party. We would have discussed everything. However, only DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin, the leader of our alliance in Tamil Nadu, is in a position to decide on the alliance.
The DMK president has said many times that the present alliance is not merely an electoral formation, but an ideological alliance with a united voice on key issues like federalism and secularism. Would the inclusion of PMK, which sided with the BJP even in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, be organic?
Has PMK not been part of the DMK alliance in 2006 and 2011? When it comes to politics, we can never say things are permanent. Parties are contesting from different platforms at different times.
VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan has been vocal about their reluctance and has even said the VCK would leave if PMK entered the alliance. Would your suggestion not put your existing long-standing ally in a difficult spot?
Thirumavalavan has every right to decide for his party, whether to be in the alliance or not and how to face the election. At the same time, the DMK president has the right to decide on who can be included or not. We should acknowledge that VCK, PMK and Congress were part of the DMK alliance in the 2011 Assembly elections.
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