Chennai, Jan 29(BPNS)
The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the political arm of the powerful Vanniyar community which was part of the AIADMK led coalition in the 2019 general elections and 2021 assembly elections has declared that it would contest alone in the 2022 February Urban local body polls.
Party founder president, Dr. S. Ramadoss has told the party cadres that getting a large chunk of seats in the Urban local body polls would leverage the party to the centre stage of Tamil politics and that it can bargain with other political parties from this position of strength of winning quite a number of seats.
The PMK which was in alliance with the AIADMK had walked out of the alliance in the 2021 October rural local body elections to nine districts of Tamil Nadu but could not make a mark as not a single PMK leader was elected to district panchayath even as it won some seats in the rural bodies including gram panchayath.
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) is primarily a political party that has its strength in Northern Tamil Nadu which has maximum Vanniyar community voters. The party is trying to get maximum seats from this stronghold that could help it become a major player in the politics of Tamil Nadu.
Sources in the PMK told BPNS that the party founder leader, Dr. S. Ramadoss in his address to party leaders and functionaries told them that the PMK has to get more seats so that it can be in a position of bargain in the next general elections of 2024 as well as the assembly elections of 2026.
PMK has walked out of the AIADMK alliance due to the fact that it does not want to play second fiddle to any one party in Tamil Nadu politics and it wants to lead a coalition that can catapult the party to the centre stage of Tamil Nadu politics or rather the party wants the Chief Minister post in the long run.
Dr. R. Padmanabhan, Director, Socio-Economic Development Foundation, a think tank based out Madurai while speaking to BPNS said, “In politics, one can be ambitious but the ambition must be based on the inherent strength and weakness of a political party. PMK cannot fill the bill of AIADMK as it is not a Pan Tamil Nadu political party and is confined to certain pockets of North Tamil Nadu and that too only among the Vanniyar community. The dream is far-fetched.”
