Thevar Jayanthi: Aiming votes, parties flock to Pasumpon

Chief Minister M K Stalin and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, were some prominent leaders who paid respects to Thevar.

Chennai: Leaders of political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the ruling DMK and principal opposition AIADMK, flocked to Pasumpon village in Ramanathapuram district on Thursday to pay their respects to Forward Bloc leader Muthuramalinga Thevar, in an attempt to woo the numerically strong and politically influential Mukulathors. 

Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan, Chief Minister M K Stalin, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, former chief minister O Panneerselvam, AMMK chief T T V Dhinakaran, and TVK general secretary N Anand are some of the prominent leaders who paid respects to Thevar on his birth and death anniversary, which falls on the same day. 

While Palaniswami reiterated the AIADMK’s demand for conferring Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, on Thevar, Stalin seconded it. 

Thevar, a freedom fighter and leader of the All India Forward Bloc who worked under Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, is a polarising figure in Tamil Nadu. While he is considered a demi-god by the Mukulathors – an umbrella term for Kallars, Agamudaiyars, and Maravars -- Dalits denounce him as the two communities have had a chequered history in southern Tamil Nadu, which once saw frequent caste riots.

The outreach by political parties towards Mukulathors whose influence extends to over 50 constituencies across Central and Southern Tamil Nadu assume significance as the Assembly elections are less than six months away. The parties are trying to woo the Thevars with the 2026 elections likely to be an intense four-cornered contest as actor Vijay’s TVK seems clear on contesting on its own. 

DMK, despite not enjoying the complete trust of the community, has been trying to woo the Mukulathors and hopes to garner a portion of the votes this 2024 polls.

Thevars, who have traditionally voted for the AIADMK ever since its founding by the legendary M G Ramachandran, have been upset with the party for systemically eliminating community leaders such as V K Sasikala, O Panneerselvam, and T T V Dhinakaran.

In fact, the first elected representative from the AIADMK in 1973, Maya Thevar, who won the Dindigul Lok Sabha by-poll, was from the community. 

In 2021 and 2024 elections, Thevars seemed to have moved away from the AIADMK and supporting parties like Dhinakaran’s AMMK despite repeated outreach by Palaniswami, who is viewed by the community as a leader of Gounders, another dominant caste to which he hails. 

The AIADMK was relegated to the third slot in many constituencies in southern Tamil Nadu in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with BJP and its alliance candidates securing the second position with Mukulathors voting in large numbers for them. In the 2021 elections too, the AIADMK won just 18 of the 58 constituencies in Southern Tamil Nadu, which was its fortress during the regime of J Jayalalithaa.

Thevar, who was associated with the Congress and later with the AIFB, was arrested in in connection with the murder of Dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran. 

Thevar had on September 10, 1957 objected to the presence of Sekaran at a peace conference convened by the then Ramanathapuram district collector C V R Panikkar following violence in the area. The following day, Sekaran was found murdered in Paramakudi leading to escalation of violence in Ramanathapuram district. 

Mukulathors -- comprising Kallars, Agamudaiyars, and Maravars -- and Devendra Kula Vellalars have a chequered history, marked by frequent clashes, including the 1957 Mudukulathur riots, triggered by the murder of DVK leader Immanuel Sekaran, in which Thevar was accused.