Vijay’s defection robs AIADMK of prominent face

A perusal of the winners of Vellore assembly constituency from 1980 reveals that all winners, whether from DMK or AIADMK, were from the Mudaliar community. DMK’s VM Devaraj (1980, 1984, 1989), Congress party’s C Gnanasekaran (1991, 1996, 2001, 2006) AIADMK’s VS Vijay (2011) and incumbent MLA P Karthikeyan (2016) of the DMK all hail from this community.

The constituency’s electoral history also reveals that AIADMK has won the Vellore seat only once, with the DMK or Congress representing the seat during this period. Factoring in its strength, the AIADMK used to allot Vellore parliamentary constituency to alliance partners.

Speculations are rife in Vellore region that the influence of the community was the reason why DMK treasurer Duraimurugan was not given the general secretary post after senior leader K Anbazhagan died. Instead, the party leadership wanted to elevate Chepauk MLA J Anbazhagan to the post – both Anbazhagans belonged to the Mudaliar community. However, the latter’s untimely death due to COVID put paid to these plans. Stalin’s son-in-law Sabarisan, belongs to this community and is said to be lobbying to get the general secretary post for a community member.