Elaborate arrangements have been made at Thiruvidanthai near Mamallapuram as PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss and PMK president Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss and scores of PMK cadre are set to participated in the party’s Chithirai Pournami Vanniyar Youth Conference which is being held on May 11, 2025 after 12 years
| Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj

Several lakh youth, mostly Vanniyars, are expected to congregate at the Vanniyar Youth Conference in Mamallapuram being organised by the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) after a gap of 12 years on Sunday (May 11, 2025) evening.

On both sides of the East Coast Road, party cadres have put up banners of PMK founder S. Ramadoss and president Anbumani Ramadoss and other leaders, including the late ‘Kaduvetti’ Guru, who was known for making incendiary speeches.

Extensive security and seating arrangements have been made for the event, which would be an opportunity for the party to exhibit its strength a year ahead of Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. This morning, former PMK president G.K. Mani and senior leader A.K. Moorthy oversaw preparations as the cadres began trickling into the venue.

Twelve years ago, when the PMK organised the massive Chithirai Pournami Youth Conference, the party was in a very different place.

In 2006, PMK had won in 18 Assembly seats and believed it was destined for bigger things in Tamil Nadu politics. Despite winning just 3 seats in 2011 in alliance with the DMK, it harboured great ambition; it wanted to lead an alliance without the Dravidian parties. The PMK joined the NDA in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with Dr. Anbumani winning the Dharmapuri seat. In 2016 Assembly polls, it went solo projecting him as Chief Ministerial candidate but failed to make a mark.

It was also during this period, the party pursued a sharp-edged caste politics, in particular rallying against inter-caste marriages involving Schedule Caste youth and caste Hindu women. In November 2012, large scale violence unfolded in Natham Colony, a SC hamlet in Naickenkottai of Dharmapuri district after a Vanniyar woman fell in love with an inhabitant of the village. Subsequently, in 2013, violence erupted between Vanniyar youth and SCs in Marakkanam as they were en route to attend the Youth Conference.

Senior leaders including Ramadoss and his son were arrested, which had resulted in further violence.

Much has changed in the State politics since then. Today, PMK has 5 MLAs, no representation in the Lok Sabha and it remains uncertain if would cease to have a representation in the Rajya Sabha soon as Dr. Anbumani’s term is due to end. Years of pursuing pro-Vanniyar politics has resulted in non-Vanniyar counter consolidation against the PMK in several elections, severely affecting its fortunes. It also appears to have temporarily given up its ambitions of capturing power in the State for practical reasons.

The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, which largely seeks to represent the interests of the Scheduled Castes and oppressed sections, and considers the PMK as its political rival, has become a party recognised by the Election Commission of India and has settled on a firm “secular” ideological plank.

Joining the AIADMK alliance in 2019, the PMK found it tough to improve its strike rate. It lost in all seven parliamentary constituencies it contested. In 2021, AIADMK government enacted a law to provide 10.5% internal reservations to Vanniyars within the MBC quota on the last day of the Assembly session before the notification of the Assembly elections. That year, the party contested in 23 Assembly constituencies, winning just five. The law was struck down by the Supreme Court subsequently due to lack of relevant and recent data. As part of BJP-led NDA in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it again failed to win a single seat, with Dr. Anbumani’s wife, Sowmya Anbumani, losing a close contest in Dharmapuri.

All of this has meant that the new president, under whose supervision this conference is being organised, has had to pivot and reinvent the party. Dr Anbumani has sought to sidestep the anti-VCK/anti-Dalit rhetoric and has demanded appropriate representation for all backward and scheduled caste communities through caste enumeration.

Though internal party conflict between Dr. Ramadoss and his son came to the fore recently, party sources have said the rally would be an opportunity to show that the support for the party has only grown among the young people.

With Dr. Anbumani reiterating to his cadres to maintain strict discipline, the party leaders expressed confidence that the conference, which became a talking point for all the wrong reasons 12 years ago, will be successful and that it would show that PMK continues to retain the support of the Vanniyar community.