We didn’t want to split votes in Bengaluru, says Thirumavalavan

Chennai VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan justifies not campaigning for party's Karnataka candidates to prevent split of anti-BJP votes.

VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan has justified his decision not to campaign for his party’s three Lok Sabha candidates in Karnataka, which went to the polls on Friday, saying “we didn’t want to play spoilsport in this crucial election”.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Thirumavalavan said that the decision not to campaign in the three constituencies was taken following a call from Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who had requested his party to support the Congress candidates to prevent a split of the anti-BJP votes.

“We had fielded candidates in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Since politics in Karnataka revolves around only three parties [Congress, JD(S) and BJP], there was no scope for a formal alliance with the Congress in Karnataka, unlike our alliance in Tamil Nadu. Our comrades wanted to field candidates and contest the elections in Bengaluru South, Bengaluru Rural and Kolar to gain some electoral experience and show our strength. However, I was told that there was a possibility of us getting votes in every booth, which could add up to a few thousand votes across the entire constituency, which could impact the end-result. Therefore, we decided to officially support the Congress candidates,” he said.

Bengaluru has a sizeable Tamil working class population, with many of them having migrated from the northern districts of Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Thirumavalavan had also campaigned for Congress candidates, mainly in Bengaluru.

“Since nobody has reached out to us in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, our candidates will campaign vigorously,” he said.

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