Chennai: An open invitation by VCK general secretary, Thol Thirumavalavan, to the AIADMK on Tuesday to attend the much publicized ‘anti-liquor conference,’ organized by his party’s women’s wing at Kallakurichi on October 2 created a flutter in political circles, throwing up speculations on a possible realignment for the 2026 Assembly elections.
Though Thirumavalavan himself made it clear in the press conference that his party distinguished between electoral politics and social causes and that the Kallakurichi conference was aimed at fighting alcohol and drugs whose use had become rampant in the State, the grapevine whirred over time to churn out stories on a rift between the DMK and VCK that had fought the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together.
When media persons approached AIADMK organization secretary D Jayakumar for his reaction on Thirumavalavan’s invitation, he said that the party would take a call on it and agreed that alcohol and drugs were wreaking havoc in the State.
The VCK leader had blamed the DMK government for reneging in its election promise to close all liquor shops in a phased manner and said that the government was now keen in raising the revenue collection through liquor State though it initially started closing down liquor shops.
Demanding total prohibition in the State, Thirumavalavan wanted the government to come up with a timeline for implementing it. He also urged the Union Government to frame a national policy on prohibition and provide special funds to States that came forward to implement total prohibition.
The party has chosen Kallakurichi as the venue for the conference as the place was under public scrutiny recently after 60 persons were killed in a hooch tragedy and October 2 as the date because it happened to be the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who was always opposed to liquor.
While the conference has been given due publicity through bill boards and press meets, addressed by Thirmavalavan at various places in the State, for quite some time, the open invitation to the AIADMK to attend it by considering prohibition as a common cause was interpreted as the VCK indirectly seeking to get closer to the AIADMK.
While the VCK leader said that the invitation was open to all parties other than communal and casteist parties with whom they could not hold hands as communalism and casteism were worse than drug addiction, the speculation gained credence in the backdrop of the AIADMK itself vowing to expand its alliance before the next elections by roping in more parties into its fold.
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