Contest for DMK symbol caused serious suffering: Durai Vaiko

MDMK leader Durai Vaiko during an interview with The Hindu. | Photo credit: Shivaraj S

Durai Vaiko, general secretary and member of parliament of the MDMK, said that the DMK was exerting pressure to prevent his party from contesting under its own symbol in even a single constituency during the assembly elections. This caused serious difficulties at all levels of the party, he claimed. The decision to continue with the alliance will be taken at the party’s General Council meeting scheduled for June 27, he added.

He explained to The Hindu on Tuesday that at the time of the Assembly elections, they decided to stay in the alliance because they believed that only the DMK-led coalition had the strength to take on the communal forces. “We believed that communal forces should not enter Tamil Nadu and that politics based on social justice and Dravidian ideology must continue. At that time, when we judged who had the capacity to counter these communal forces, it was the DMK. Moreover, as far as Vijay was concerned, no one predicted that he would win 108 seats and capture power. Under these circumstances, we decided to go ahead with Viaiance.”

However, he pointed out that the events that happened during the election period caused severe pain to him and his party cadre. “They forced us to contest under the DMK symbol in all the four seats allotted to us. If the party does not contest the elections for five years, its registration will be cancelled. In this regard, we insisted on contesting under our own symbol and explained the situation to the DMK leadership. Subsequently, the DMK president allowed us to contest under our own symbol after signing an agreement on one seat (Skazir said it at one place). contest under the symbol DMK even in that single constituency of Sirkazhi, we had to accept it as anti-democratic.It must be said that it is an unfortunate phenomenon in an alliance that talks about social justice and equality.

He further noted that once the alliance was finalized and election work started, there was no opportunity left to make alternative decisions. He also emphasized that victory does not depend only on a prominent symbol. “In these elections, ‘Two Leaves’ (AIADMK) and ‘Rising Sun’ (DMK) symbols lost in many places. On the contrary, IUML’s ‘Ladder’ symbol emerged victorious in several seats. During the assembly elections, we managed to make the ‘Matchbox’ symbol available to the public in just 14 days with a margin of almost 03.005 votes in a year. In the era of social media, it is easy to popularize symbols among people,” he said.

He recalled that similar pressure was exerted during the parliamentary elections. “Then they insisted that I contest under the DMK symbol. I refused. How can a party general secretary resign from the MDMK, become a member of the DMK and then contest? They pressured me to the very end. It was in that situation that I said in a meeting that I would rather die than contest on a symbol other than our own,” he recalled.

Attributing the defeat of the DMK alliance to the young generation’s desire for change, Mr. Durai Vaiko pointed out that many of the newly elected MLAs have no substantial financial background, political lineage or caste dominance.

With a huge crowd of young people rallying behind actor-politician Vijay, Durai Vaiko mentioned that he sees Vijay’s political entry as an opportunity to bring the Dravidian principles and ideologies of Periyar and Anna to the younger generation. “They talk about Periyar and Anna. When they talk about how Tamil Nadu benefited from them, it reaches the youth. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” remarked Durai Vaiko.

So is MDMK moving towards TVK (Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam)? While he clarified that no decision has yet been taken regarding the alliance, the issue will be discussed at the upcoming General Council meeting. “Although we are continuing the DMK alliance today, it will certainly be one of the key issues discussed at the June 27 General Council meeting,” he concluded.

Published – 10 June 2026 21:35 IST