Exclusive OBC Vanniyar Quota: Stalin Turns Compulsion into Advantage

In according a 10.5% exclusive internal reservation to the OBC Vanniyar community, within the 20% quota for the Most Backward Classes (MBC), Chief Minister MK Stalin has turned compulsion into an advantage besides taking the wind out of the sail of the PMK’s sail, writes MC Rajan Bureau Chief, ETV Bharat, Chennai.

Chennai: In a calculated move, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu had implemented a 10.5% exclusive quota for the OBC Vanniyar community in education and employment from this current academic year. Chief Minister MK Stalin has put an end to the suspense over the sensitive issue while turning a compulsion into an advantage for the ruling DMK.

It was a compulsion since it was a legacy of the previous AIADMK government of Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS). Also, reservation being a sensitive issue, the government had to tread cautiously to turn it into an advantage.

Doubts were lingering over its implementation since the admission process to higher education programmes has commenced. When the EPS government hurriedly passed the legislation in the Assembly barely half an hour before the poll notification on February 26, it was apparently to salvage the alliance with the Vanniyar-dominant Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK).

Though nearly a four-decade-old demand of the PMK, the party had reignited this ahead of the poll, to demand its pound of flesh. However, it had backfired as both the AIADMK and PMK lost badly in Northern Tamil Nadu, where Vanniyars are highly concentrated. The PMK which contested in 23 seats could win only in four. It was attributed to the non-Vanniyar consolidation. Similar was the case in southern Tamil Nadu while the west remained a pocket borough of the AIADMK.

The law provides for internal reservation of 10.5% for Vanniyars and 24 other subsects of the community from within the 20% quota for the MBCs, which comprise a total of 115 castes. With cases challenging the exclusive Vanniyar quota pending before Madras High Court, questions have cropped up over its immediate implementation.

Though a difficult decision, it turned out to be an opportunity for the DMK to consolidate the gains it had secured in the election and extend it further in the civic polls for Town panchayats, Municipalities and Corporations, expected in September. The DMK hopes that this would yield a rich harvest not only in the civic poll but in the next assembly election as well.

"This long term strategy requires neutralising the PMK in its stronghold. For except in Chennai and its periphery, electoral fortune of the DMK in north TN has been a fluctuating one", argues P Ramajayam, psephologist with Lok Niti. “Exclusive quota for Vanniyars has been a long time demand of the PMK for which it had launched agitations which turned out to be violent, earning the party notoriety.

Now that the quota had been granted, it had lost an emotive plank to rally people from the community and the DMK is well poised to eat into its vote bank. In reservation, what has been promised through legislation cannot be taken back considering the sensitivity of the issue. However, the DMK has seen to it that it has to gain from this largesse," explains Ramajayam, also teaching at Bharathidasan University, Trichy.

Analysts also opine that the PMK with nearly 3.5% – 4.5% vote share, has remained a determining force in the northern districts, by switching alliances. In their view, the OBC party, which has shared power at the Centre as well, has been punching above its weight. The civic polls will be a barometer to gauge whether Stalin's gamble will pay off.