VCK rally on January 26 to kick off I.N.D.I.A. bloc's Lok Sabha poll campaign in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi’s (VCK) public rally in Tiruchirappalli on January 26 will serve as a platform for I.N.D.I.A. alliance parties to kick off their campaign against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu.

The conference titled ‘Vellum Jananayagam’ (Democracy will Triumph) will see the participation of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, DMK chief M K Stalin, and leaders of Left parties, Sitaram Yechury and D Raja among others, in a show of strength at a time the Opposition alliance is battling criticism from the BJP that they are not united.

VCK, a Dalit party, is organising the public meeting to commemorate the silver jubilee of it entering electoral politics in 1999 in alliance with the then Tamil Maanila Congress led by late G K Moopanar. The party, which has been an integral part of the DMK-Congress alliance since 2017, currently has two MPs – VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan and D Ravikumar – and four MLAs.

Ravikumar told DH that the public meeting is aimed at “educating” the people on how the BJP, in the past ten years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has “demolished” every democratic institution in the country and has “legitimised mob violence and lynching” as tools for political and religious polarisation.

“Hate politics is now the order of the day and people who take law into their own hands are glorified by this government at the Centre. We want to tell people how they are affected by the polarisation, which the BJP uses to hide all its failures in the past ten years,” the Villupuram MP added.

Kharge, Stalin, Yechury, Raja, CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, and leaders of I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners in Tamil Nadu will also participate in the public meeting.

“Since the conference comes months before the Lok Sabha polls, we believe this will be an informal launch of the alliance’s campaign against the BJP in the state. Since top leaders of parties will be in attendance, we expect that they will send a strong message against the BJP,” Ravikumar added.

He also said the presence of leaders from different political parties on the dais would bust the BJP’s “lies” that the Opposition parties “fight among each other” and can never put up an united face. “The BJP’s false campaign will once again be busted on January 26,” Ravikumar added. The meeting also comes ahead of the seat-sharing talks between the constituents of the alliance.