Rajinikanth’s cigarette and the start of Vijayakant’s DMDK

‘Captain’ Vijayakant, founder of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), is often hailed for his courage in plunging into the Tamil Nadu political arena, at a time when Dravidian stalwarts M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa were flourishing. In fact, he is the only other actor, after MG Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa, to succeed and carve out a space for himself in the political space. His political trajectory, which attained a steep rise and then fell rapidly, had an interesting start from heated battles with an established political party, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), back in 2004.It started in 2002, when Rajinikanth ruffled PMK’s feathers by asking for the elimination of forest brigand Veerappan. Speaking at an event celebrating 100 days of actor Puneeth Rajkumar’s Kannada movie Appu, Rajini recalled Puneeth’s father Rajkumar who was abducted by Veerappan back then, and asserted that the era of the brigand must be brought to an end. .How Rajini set the stage for VijayakantThe issue between PMK and Rajinikanth extended till the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Ahead of the elections, PMK founder Ramadoss made derogatory comments about Rajini, following which a fresh batch of clashes erupted between the party and the actor. At that point, Rajini had hinted that Baba could be his last film and he might enter politics, but had not made any formal announcement.In the wake of Ramadoss’ comments about Rajini, the superstar’s fans started opposing PMK with a black flag protest in Madurai. Soon after this, the actor himself vouched to bring down PMK in the 2004 elections. In a press conference, he called Ramadoss “the king of violence” and said that his fans would campaign against the PMK in all the six seats the party contested in. But PMK ended up winning in all the six constituencies and it came as a huge hit to Rajinikanth’s political ambitions, following which he abandoned his then plans to enter politics. This created the perfect political opportunity for actor Vijayakant..The ‘Baba’ controversyThough the political exposition in his films such as Vallarasu (2000), Ramana (2002), and Rajjiyam (2002) had hinted at his political entry beforehand, it was a clash between Tamil superstar Rajinikanth and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss that eventually led to Vijayakant’s establishment as a political leader.Read: Vijayakant's film journey: How Captain managed to hold his groundPMK founder Ramadoss was reportedly irked by Rajinikanth's comment on Veerappan, as Veerappan belonged to the Vanniyar community which is the base of Ramadoss' political party. Without mentioning any names, Ramadoss responded, "One actor here has made crores and crores in Tamil cinema. What has he given to the state in return?"Soon after this, PMK created a controversy over Rajini’s antics with beedi in the film Baba, which told the story of an atheist named Baba who smokes and drinks extensively, even though he was considered a reincarnation of an ancient priest who lived in the Himalayas. Rajini had acted in Baba, a 2002 box office failure, after a brief hiatus of 3.5 years.Citing the smoking scenes in the film, PMK workers ransacked theatres screening Baba, even stopping it from being shown in certain parts of the state. Ramadoss also criticised Rajini for encouraging the youth to take up smoking and called it “irresponsible.” Clashes erupted between Rajini fans and PMK supporters, and the superstar threatened to take legal action against PMK.PMK’s violent behaviour was also opposed by the film industry at large, and they soon turned against the party. It was during this period that Vijayakant served as the president of the South Indian Film Artistes' Association. So Ramadoss, who had the impression that Vijayakant was behind the film industry’s opposition to his party, developed a bitterness towards Vijayakant..Showdown between PMK and VijayakantBy 2004, Vijayakant had announced his political ambitions multiple times. But he was not approached by either Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) or Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), both parties Vijayakant had expressly admired. He decided to test the political waters that year at a public meeting held by his fan clubs at Kallakurichi – a town in the Vanniyar heartland, represented by PMK. At the meeting, Vijayakant reportedly made a comment about how Union Ministers are behind portfolios that would fetch them the most income, and took a jibe at Ministers who are ‘selected’ without being elected by the people. This was considered a potshot at Anbumani Ramadoss, son of Ramadoss, who had assumed charge as the Union Health Minister.Soon after this, the wrath of the PMK cadre descended upon Vijayakant, with them burning effigies of the actor and attacking Vijayakant fan club members. They also prevented the screening of Vijayakant’s Gajendra (2004) and asked people to boycott the film. PMK essentially followed the same modus operandi they employed during the Baba controversy.Vijayakant, however, was cautious about the steps he was taking. “I am treading cautiously. I do not want to make a mistake and fail. If I take a step and have a fall and ‘hurt’ myself then no one will bother about me. Even the media will not be interested in me after that,” he said. He added that he would start a political party after consulting with his fans, but not at this point. To a comment by Ramadoss that Vijayakant was a “half-baked” person with no political knowledge, the actor said he had been politically active since he was 12 years old and that he was a participant in Tamil Nadu’s anti-Hindi agitation.Vijayakant’s wife Premalatha had once told TNM that the DMDK was born because of PMK. “The PMK held protests across the state in 2004 and attacked our fans. They were upset over a statement Captain gave outside director Murugadoss’ wedding venue. Their attacks spiralled out of control, but our fans hit back with vengeance. The fighting stopped only after Karunanidhi intervened. But when that incident happened, the fans were agitated and told us that we need to form a political party to counter political attacks,” she said.Vijayakant had made a name for himself in the film industry for his open, democratic, and charitable nature. This soon led to the formation of his fan clubs, which too were used to help the people of Tamil Nadu. Vijayakant’s fan clubs were known to donate tailoring machines, tricycles for persons with disabilities, allotting funds for education, and more. And when the time came for this political plunge, these fan clubs, with lakhs of members in rural areas, became the backbone of the party. The flag for Vijayakant fan club released in 2000, became the flag of his party..DMDK is formedOn September 14, 2005, amid a massive rally at Thoppur of Madurai of the members of his fans’ association, Vijayakant announced that he was starting the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) by converting his fan clubs. The party’s ideology was a mix of nationalism with Dravidianism. Speaking about including ‘Desiya’ (meaning National) along with Dravidam, he said, “Many people think that Dravida Nadu includes only Tamils. But people speaking the four southern languages constitute Dravida Nadu. Since we want Dravida Nadu to be part of the Indian Union, we have included the word ‘Desiya’ in the party's name. It is imperative that India should be united.”The actor-turned-politician, who came to be fondly referred to as ‘Karuppu MGR’ (Dark MGR) and ‘Puratchi Kalaignar’ (revolutionary artiste), also announced that his party was depending on the support of women voters. His wife Premalatha also played an active role in the party.Read: ‘Captain was second only to MGR, challenged TN’s two-party system’: Ex Min. K Pandia Rajan.Victory in Assembly pollsAfter taking a decisive plunge into electoral politics, Vijayakant soon emerged as a third force against the Dravidian stalwarts M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. Within eight months of floating the political party, DMDK contested independently in all 234 constituencies in the state during the 2006 Assembly elections, and secured a whopping 8.45% of vote share. This created a dent in DMK’s landslide victory that year.Vijayakant, however, was the only DMDK leader who actually won the election. He secured the Vriddhachalam constituency, which was a PMK stronghold until then.The actor expressed happiness that DMDK made such an impact the very first time they contested elections, and announced that he would soon transform the party into a political force. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, DMDK’s vote share increased to 10%.DMDK then tied up with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and won 29 seats in the 2011 state elections to become the second largest party in the Assembly. This up-and-coming party had defeated DMK, a feat that had not happened in decades. So 2011 saw AIADMK as ruling party and Vijayakant as the Leader of Opposition.The infamous Assembly fight between ‘Captain’ and JJIn the same year, a fiery discussion ensued in the Assembly over hike in bus and milk rates. Stating that the DMDK member’s tone was unacceptable, Jayalalithaa challenged him in the Open House to win independently in the next election. Vijayakant, in response, said that AIADMK wouldn’t have come to power without his party’s alliance. As the argument heated up, the Opposition was ousted from the Assembly.The issue later blew up over the years, finally culminating in eight DMDK MLAs quitting the party and joining AIADMK in 2016. Vijayakant lost the position of Opposition leader.Meanwhile, the actor-politician decided to fight the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and joined hands with its arch-nemesis PMK.By the time the 2016 Assembly elections took place, the party’s lustre fizzled out and Vijayakant’s alliance with Vaiko’s Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and Thol Thirumavalavan’s Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) brought him no seats. His health condition also started deteriorating by then, and his wife Premalatha, brother-in-law Sudheesh, and son Prabhakaran took over the mantle of the party.