CHENNAI: TVK Velmurugan, president of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi, a splinter group from PMK and one of the strong voices in Tamil nationalistic politics, said he found Congress much better than BJP in terms of securing the rights of people of Tamil Nadu.
“I am ready to join anyone who is fighting for the welfare of Tamil Nadu and betterment of Tamils. The initiative to bring all such Tamil nationalistic parties together is going on for some years now. But, we can’t be sure if that will happen,” he said.
However, on the possibility of such parties coming together to face the coming elections, speaking to ‘Express’ a few days before extending his support to DMK he said in negative.
“I guess for the next 10 years there is no possibility of Tamil nationalistic parties to get popular support of people. Right now, most of the people prefer DMK leader MK Stalin to be the next Chief Minister. Only if the Dravidian parties fail repeatedly, people would start considering parties like us.”
Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, the two-time MLA met DMK president M K Stalin at the Arivalayam and extended his support to the party. Earlier in the day, he had claimed all major parties had asked for his support for the elections. Velmurugan, however, said it is unlikely he’ll contest time due to his health conditions.
About his party’s strategy for the coming Lok Sabha polls, Velmurugan claimed he can mobilise at least two lakh voters in the elections in each of six to 10 parliamentary constituencies and there is no other Tamil nationalistic party with such capability. “But, still this is not enough to win. So, I will explore various options that are the best for the cadre loyal to me,” he added.
Drawing a contrast between BJP and Congress, Velmurugan said, “Congress is better than the BJP in protecting Tamils rights. The BJP government was keen on implementing disastrous projects for Tamil Nadu, like hydrocarbon, coal bed methane extraction and Sterlite.”
Brushing aside the perception that many Tamil nationalists have an adverse opinion on Dravidian ideology, Velmurugan said Tamil nationalism is a child of Dravidian ideology. If there is no Dravidian ideology, there is no space for Tamil nationalism ideology also, he added.