My Desire for Dalit-OBC Unity is Why I Am Calling for PMK's Inclusion in the DMK Bloc: Selvaperunthagai

In an interview with TNIE's S Kumaresan and Pon Vasanth B A, TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai elaborates on why he thinks PMK should be part of the DMK-led alliance, why the AIADMK-BJP alliance is a non-starter and the measures he is implementing to strengthen the Congress in Tamil Nadu.

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After your recent meeting with PMK founder S Ramadoss, you said you would welcome the PMK joining the DMK-led alliance for the 2026 Assembly polls.

As I said earlier, it was purely a courtesy call. But, both of us are politicians, so we would have discussed everything. However, only DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin, our alliance leader in Tamil Nadu, can decide on the matter.

The DMK president has repeatedly emphasised that the present alliance is ideological and not just an electoral formation, with a united voice on issues such as federalism and secularism. Would PMK's inclusion be organic?

Did PMK not ally with the DMK in 2006 and 2011? In politics, nothing can be said to be permanent. Parties contest from different platforms at different times.

VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan has said his party would leave if PMK joined the alliance. Would your suggestion not put VCK, a long-standing ally, in a tough spot?

He has every right to make decisions regarding his party, whether to be in the alliance or not and how to face the election. At the same time, the DMK president has the right to decide on who can be included. We should remember that the VCK, PMK and Congress were in the DMK alliance in 2011.