12 years later, PMK wants to show its holdings in the Vanniyar community

PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss and PMK President Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss and dozens of PMK Cadre will be carefully arranged at Thiruvidanthai near Mamallapuram and will participate in the party’s participation. Chithirai Pournami Vanniyar Youth Conference will be held after 12 years on May 11, 2025 | Photo source: B. Velankanni Raj

It is expected to gather at the Vanniyar Youth Conference in Mamallapuram, which is organized by Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) after 12 years on Sunday (11 May 2025).

On both sides of East Coast Road, party cadres have provided banners for PMK founder S. Ramadoss and President Anbumani Ramadoss and other leaders, including the late “Kaduvetti” Guru, who are known for their incitement speeches.

Extensive safety and seating arrangements have been made for the event, which will be an opportunity for the party to demonstrate its strength a year before the Tamil Nadu parliamentary elections. This morning, former PMK president GK Mani and senior leader Ak Moorthy oversee the preparations of cadres as cadres began to drip into the venue.

PMK Senior Leader GK Mani oversees the arrangements of Tiruvidat near Mamallapuram as PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss and PMK President Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss and PMK Cadre will join the party Chithirai Pournami Vanniyar Youth Conference was held on May 11, 2025 12 years later Image source: B. Velankanni Raj

Twelve years ago, when PMK organized a large scale Chithirai Pournami Youth Conference, the party is in a very different place.

In 2006, PMK won 18 general meeting seats and believed it was destined to be a bigger thing in Tamil Nadu politics. Although it won only 3 seats with the DMK league, it has huge ambitions. It hopes to lead the coalition without the Dravidian Party. PMK won the Dharmapuri seat with Dr. Anbumani and joined the NDA. In the 2016 poll, it projected himself as the chief minister candidate without success.

It was during this time that the party pursued sharp caste politics, especially opposing interracial marriages involving agenda caste youth and caste Hindu women. In November 2012, large-scale violence unfolded in the Natham Colony, a Vanniyar woman who fell in love with the village in the small SC village of Naickenkottai in the Dharmapuri region. Subsequently, in 2013, violence broke out between the Vanniyar youth and SC in Marakkanam en route Participate in Youth Conference.

Senior leaders, including Ramadoss and his son, were arrested, which led to further violence.

PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss and PMK President Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss and PMK cadres will participate in the party’s arrangements and make arrangements in Thiruvidanthai near Mamallapuram. Chithirai Pournami Vanniyar Youth Conference will be held after 12 years on May 11, 2025 | Photo source: B. Velankanni Raj

Since then, a lot has changed in state politics. Today, PMK has 5 MLAs, not represented in Lok Sabha, and it is not sure whether it will be stopped shortly after the term of Dr. Anbumani will end. In several elections, the years of pursuit of pro-Vanian politics led to the ineffective merger of PMK, which seriously affected its fate. It also seems to have temporarily abandoned its ambition to seize power in the state for practical reasons.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, who largely attempted to represent the interests of regular castes and oppressed sectors and regarded PMK as its political rival, has become a party recognized by the Indian Election Commission and settled on an ideological board of “secular”.

When joining the AIADMK alliance in 2019, PMK found it difficult to increase its strike rate. It was lost in all seven parliamentary constituencies that competed. In 2021, the AIADMK government enacted a law to provide 10.5% internal bookings to Vanniyars of MBC quota ahead of the General Assembly election notice on the last day of the General Assembly meeting. That year, the party participated in 23 parliamentary constituencies and won only five. The Supreme Court then ousted the law due to lack of relevant and latest data. It once again won a seat with Dr. Anbumani’s wife Sowmya Anbumani, losing a close match at Dharmapuri as part of the NDA led by BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss and PMK President Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss and dozens of PMK Cadre will be carefully arranged at Thiruvidanthai near Mamallapuram and will participate in the party’s participation. Chithirai Pournami Vanniyar Youth Conference will be held after 12 years on May 11, 2025 | Photo source: B. Velankanni Raj

All of this means that under the supervision of organizing this meeting, the new president has to spin and reshape the party. Dr. Anbumani tried to avoid anti-VCK/anti-Dalit rhetoric and asked for proper representation for all backward and planned caste communities through caste enumeration.

Although internal party conflicts between Dr. Ramados and his son have recently emerged, party sources say the rally will be an opportunity to show that support for the party will only grow among young people.

As Dr. Anbumani reiterated his cadres to maintain strict discipline, the party leaders expressed confidence that the meeting that became the meeting for all wrong reasons would be successful 12 years ago will be a sign that the PMK continued to retain the support of the Vanniyar community.