Star Candidate: Thol Thirumavalavan / VCK

CHENNAI: Known for his fiery speeches, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi president Thol. Thirumavalavan is one of the key candidates to look for in the upcoming LS polls.

He rose to prominence in the 1990s as a Dalit leader and formally entered politics in 1999. He is an author and has also acted in Tamil cinema, but his key challenge lies in spreading wings to the south of the State as his strength lie more in the north.

Thiruma’s political platform centres on ending the caste system and its atrocities. He has also expressed support for Tamil nationalist movement, especially liberation of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka. He wanted to shed his party’s Dalit identity by taking up Tamil nationalist causes and giving representation to non-Dalits and minorities in the party posts.

Thirumavalavan did his bachelor’s course in Chemistry at Presidency College in Chennai, a Master’s degree in Criminology and pursued Law at Madras Law College. He completed his PhD at Manonmanium Sundaranar University and was awarded his doctorate in 2018.

He worked in the Government Forensic Department as a scientific assistant, from which he later resigned in 1999 to contest polls. After contesting the Chidambaram Lok Sabha seat unsuccessfully in 1999, he won the 2001 state assembly elections in alliance with DMK, a post from which he resigned in 2004 quoting ideological differences with the DMK. He won the Chidambaram LS seat in 2009 and 2019.

Thirumavalavan and PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss had reconciled in the past and worked together from 2004 to 2009 when they were part of the same electoral alliance. The alliance failed on the long run.

VCK has now plans to enter the electoral fray in the neighbouring Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.