MADURAI: WHEN the AIADMK leadership showed the doors to its longtime allies, the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and a few rag-tag Thevar outfits, it raised many an eyebrow in the political circles of Tamil Nadu which is going to polls on May 16.
It came as a rude shock to the AIFB and others which the AIADMK has been accommodating in its alliance almost every election. But a majority of the conservative estimate of 15 per cent population of Thevars concentrated in south and central districts remaining loyal to the AIADMK since its formation in 1972, insiders feel, the high command only dropped the baggage at the most appropriate time.
“It seems to be a conscious decision taken after a dispassionate study into the caste equations and voting dynamics. That the AIADMK is pro-Thevar, is strong among the Thevar youths today and hence it is aware that these tiny dispensations cannot erode its traditional Mukkulathor vote bank,” a party senior says.
The bonhomie between them and the party began when its founder leader and matinee idol M G Ramachandran handpicked K Maya Thevar to contest the by-elections in Dindigul Lok Sabha constituency in 1973.
The party was one-year-old when MGR broke away from the DMK over differences with its chief M Karunanidhi and was testing the electoral waters for the very first time.
When he fielded Maya Thevar, a Piramalai Kallar, in Dindigul, the entire community felt elated and proud. Maya Thevar won with comfortable ease. The message MGR sent then was sound and clear - the consolidation of this particular social group behind his party. But he could not cut into the Agamudaiyar vote bank.
But it was Jayalalithaa who in a master stroke brought the three major caste groups - Kallars, Maravars and Agamudaiyars - under the common identifier - Thevars by a G.O in 1995, and thus under the party’s fold. Her annual visit to the memorial of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar at Pasumpon village, his birthplace, in Ramanathapuram district, an offering of 13 kg gold armour plate to his statue and the announcement to celebrate the leader’s annual guru pooja as a state event endeared her and the party further to the community across the State.
Besides, the State’s win in Mullaiperiyar dam issue, which invariably expects to benefit the southern districts, a majority of them Mukkulathors, is another additional factor to the argument that the AIADMK is enjoying their unassailable patronage.
It is not a surprise that the AIADMK has fielded a majority of its candidates from among them in south and delta districts. Nearly 25 per cent of its senior functionaries are Thevars. The DMK is also not far behind in wooing them, but still it has not been successful in weaning them from the AIADMK.
Hence, AIFB, a party identified with Muthuramalinga Thevar, and other Thevar outfits coming under ‘singa kootani’ to contest 53 seats on its popular lion symbol is no cause of concern for the AIADMK. It is rest content with a seat allotted to comedian Karunas of Mukkulathor Puli Padai, a surprise entity in its alliance.