She emerges from atop her campaign van with her hands folded. Clad in a light brown saree with a red, yellow, and black shawl draped around her neck, she says, “I have come back to Virudhachalam as a representative of ‘Captain’ to carry out and continue his good deeds among the people.”
On a Tuesday mid-morning, under the scorching heat, her convoy, accompanied by campaign vans fitted with speakers and a few SUV cars, sneaks through the bazaar and the many narrow lanes in the Mangalampettai town in Virudhachalam. Located 220km north of Chennai, it was the Virudhachalam constituency which legitimised the late Vijayakanth’s entry into the political arena. And two decades later, this is the second time she is fighting the electoral battle from the same constituency, where her husband, who was affectionately called ‘Captain’ by his fans, scored his first victory in 2006 with a margin of 13,777 votes.
For those who watched Premalatha Vijayakanth’s passionate oratory in Mangalampettai town, it seemed she was fighting just an electoral battle to win from a constituency that was once held by her husband. But to those who observed her closely, she was fighting to prove her betrayers wrong and also to bring new life to the party. Premalatha now shoulders the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), founded by her husband. “This election is crucial not just for me or for my DMDK. It is important for the people of Tamil Nadu, as it is going to bring a revolutionary change.”
It is a do-or-die battle for her to revive the party and make it re-enter the legislative assembly. Refused a Rajya Sabha ticket by the opposition AIADMK, as per the 2024 alliance agreement, the DMDK has now walked into the DMK fold – an alliance that Vijayakanth never wanted to choose in his lifetime as a politician. DMDK has been allotted 10 seats in the alliance, two of which are contested by Premalatha and her son Vijaya Prabhakaran. While she is in the fray from Virudhachalam, the first seat won by Vijayakanth, Vijaya Prabhakaran is seeking his mandate in Virudhunagar, in south Tamil Nadu, which has the maximum number of Vijayakanth fans.
In her campaign trail, there is every resemblance of Vijayakanth and his style. The men and party functionaries around Premalatha carry the same discipline as their founder. And she carries the responsibility of reviving the party on her shoulders with strong determination. Ask her about the one dream that Vijayakanth always wanted to come true, she recalls the day when he handed over the party to her. “He held my hand in the party office during the general council meeting and handed over the party to me. He indicated that I have to take the party to the next level.” And now, years after his death, while fighting to fulfil his dream, she feels the void. “He was always there for the people. Whenever there was any issue – be it tsunami or flood, he would fold up his dhoti and be on the ground with the people.”
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From the initial 8.38 per cent vote share the party secured in the 2006 election, Premalatha wants to prove her party’s strength now. With a lone seat in 2006, the party secured 7.9 per cent and sat in the opposition benches with 29 MLAs. Its vote share dipped to 2.4 per cent in the 2016 elections and went down further below one per cent in the 2021 elections. But these numbers do not matter for Premalatha, who recently gave it back to AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami, as he called DMDK the “half per cent vote share party”.
It may be true that the DMDK held backdoor talks with all the major political parties in the state, including the TVK. For Premalatha, the only aim was to move above from being a single-digit vote share party to a strong force with representation in the legislative assembly and Parliament. Of course, this time, the political deal worked for the DMDK – her brother L.K. Sudheesh is now a Rajya Sabha MP on a DMK ticket. And she has managed to bag 10 seats to contest in the upcoming election.
Ideology or electoral arithmetic, nothing matters for her at this point. “Every party has an ideology. No one will compromise on that. But electoral victory is more important at this point of time,” she clarifies. This clarity in her thought has helped her transform into a star campaigner for the DMK alliance. She moves from one constituency to another to campaign, calls Stalin her big brother, and says DMK’s victory in this election means Captain’s victory. This election means one last chance for her to test if Vijayakanth’s memory can still translate into votes to revive the DMDK.
