In unerring succession over the last five decades, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have alternately ruled Tamil Nadu, where no national party has been in power since the Congress lost in 1967. Dislodging the party in power has been the overarching objective of other parties, and the thought of providing an alternative to the two mainstays of Tamil Nadu is only a minor theme in any election. The coming together of Vijayakant and the four-party People’s Welfare Front (PWF), which includes two regional parties and the two Left parties, to forge a third front is therefore a significant development. As the party with the third largest vote share in the State, Mr. Vijayakant’s decade-old Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) may not have really lived up to its early promise, but in tandem with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) of Vaiko and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a Dalit party, it seems to be in a position to mount a semblance of a challenge to the two formidable leaders — M. Karunanidhi of the DMK and Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK. Mr. Vijayakant, who will be projected as the new front’s chief ministerial candidate, was the most sought-after political ally in the run-up to the Assembly election, with the DMK, the PWF and the BJP courting his company. The DMK went out of its way to win him over, but Mr. Vijayakant’s political instincts seem to have taught him that he should lead a front rather than join one.
Mr. Vijayakant, who floated his party in 2005, began as a lone ranger and garnered an impressive 8.5 per cent vote share in the 2006 Assembly polls, followed by an improved figure of 10.3 per cent in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. Frustrated that his vote share was not translating into seats, he tried the alliance route in 2011, joining hands successfully with the AIADMK, winning 29 out of the 41 seats his party contested. But he lost out in political terms as he could no longer project himself as an alternative. He was part of the National Democratic Alliance in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll and drew a blank. His performance as Leader of the Opposition in the last five years was largely inconsequential. The lack of a clear policy or programme for his party and his own image as an inarticulate, confused and perennially angry man, and one whose party is largely controlled by close family members, do not exactly mark him out as a leader with great potential. Yet, his presence as a challenger in the fray may have helped transform the search for an alternative from being just an ambition into a concrete idea. This summer’s vote may be a real opportunity to examine whether the voters of Tamil Nadu will be content with alternately voting in two powerful parties, or whether they would like a viable choice in the form of a combination of parties equidistant from the two main forces.
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