VILLUPURAM: VCK chief and MP Thirumavalavan inaugurated the MLA office of Minister of Social Justice Vanni Arasu, along with Villupuram MP D Ravikumar and former MLA and general secretary of VCK, Sinthanai Selvan, in Tindivanam on Friday. Speaking to reporters, Thirumavalavan said, “We were ambiguous about TVK before elections, but their choice of aligning with the left parties without seeking support from AIADMK to form government was the opposite of what we had thought.”
Regarding the claim of Congress Praveen Chakravarty’s social media post claiming that he was selected as the first MP candidate of the “Tamil Nadu Social Justice Progressive Front”, an alliance he claimed to comprise TVK, Congress, VCK, IUML, CPI and CPM, Thirumavalavan said, “We were not informed about the formation of any alliance in that name. VCK stands by what the CPM leader (P Shanmugam) has said.”
Responding to questions on VCK’s stand on joining the ministry despite criticising them as RSS’s child during campaigns, he said that the party felt TVK was interested in the left parties, which gained their trust. “Moreover, TVK invited us to join the cabinet, and as a party we felt the historic moment and urgency of delivering the welfare measures to marginalised people through participating in the government.”
He also said that former BJP state president K Annamalai’s announcement of a new political movement is just a humbug game of the BJP. “But if he is truly intended to stand for the rights of Tamil people, the language and federal rights of the state, then we are welcoming him,” he said.
He also said that the party will take necessary steps to build a memorial for victims of 1978 violence that killed 12 Dalit people in Villupuram.