"Until 2019, we lived in a very small house in downtown Salem.... Like Ambedkar, who wore a jacket just to show that he was equal to everybody, I had to build this house,” Logesh Tamilselvan D said at his mansion on the outskirts of Salem in northwestern Tamil Nadu.
Logesh is the candidate of actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) from Rasipuram in neighbouring Namakkal district, and the son of AIADMK’s Dalit stalwart P. Dhanapal.
In 2023, the film Maamannan — believed to be based on Dhanapal’s struggles as a politician from the leather-worker Arunthathiyar community in this part of the state — was produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin. Udhayanidhi, the deputy chief minister and son of chief minister M.K. Stalin, played the role of the radical son of Maamannan, a character resembling Dhanapal in the fictional town of Kasipuram.
Logesh, whose mansion stands more as a symbolic structure in this OBC-dominated district of Salem, claimed he had no clue about the film until it was released and had not spoken to Udhayanidhi about the film.
“Many of the lines in the film are exactly events that took place. They researched this well. The character of the son, however, is not me,” he said.
In fact, Logesh is more like Maamannan in the film, who stoically bears casteism until he can no longer.
Logesh said: “Although we get a position and other things, people still have that caste discrimination. They started to talk behind us (rather than being openly casteist). Social status is not given to us.... I still cannot tell you many things openly.... What happened 20 years ago is changing, but it has not gone away completely. I hope in another 20-30 years everything will go away.”
Cut to 2026, Dhanapal’s former seat, Avanashi, is being contested by BJP Union minister L. Murugan. Unlike the film, where the casteist villain breaks away from Maamannan’s party, Logesh quit the AIADMK after a two-year struggle within.
“When Amma (former AIADMK supremo and chief minister Jayalalithaa) was there, there wasn’t any kind of caste discrimination in the party.... When she made my father the Speaker, he was the first Scheduled Caste person to hold the post (in Tamil Nadu).... Once she passed away (in 2016), we had some trouble inside the party,” Logesh said.
In 2017, during a trust vote on the AIADMK government, Speaker Dhanapal was heckled by DMK MLAs over the manner in which the vote was being conducted. There was a split in the AIADMK during which a section of MLAs supported the dissident MLA T.T.V. Dhinakaran.
A vote of confidence was called for. The DMK accused Dhanapal of violating norms to save his party’s government. His shirt was torn before House marshals could evacuate him. Dhanapal disqualified 18 AIADMK dissidents and saved the AIADMK government helmed by chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS).
“When my father was assaulted by DMK MLAs, the AIADMK MLAs simply sat and watched.... EPS should be thankful to him (for saving his government). But after 2024, he (Dhanapal) was not shown any respect. They practically erased him from the party structure. Six months ago, he had a heart attack. None of the senior AIADMK leaders came to see him in the hospital,” Logesh said.
Murugan came to seek Dhanapal’s blessings after his candidature, which the latter gave him but stayed away from campaigning. Logesh had already joined the TVK by then. His principal opponents in Rasipuram are the DMK and the BJP.
“The BJP-AIADMK alliance is only at the top level. On the ground level, AIADMK people are not really merging with the BJP people.... I am still in touch with the AIADMK people. They are generally my friends.... They are telling me that they are not happy with the alliance.
“Even Amma had an alliance with the BJP. The AIADMK had the upper hand. Amma would decide the seats. Now, it is not the same. The BJP decides everything and is eating into the AIADMK base. It wants to fill the space of the AIADMK, which has lost its ideology. The AIADMK is losing its core vote base.... They are likely to move to the TVK in larger numbers after the elections.”
Despite the acrimony within the party, Logesh said it took a lot of effort to make his father accept his joining another party.
"Although it is not called the Dravidian party, it has almost similar ideologies of a Dravidian movement. The party's motto itself is: All are equal by birth. One of the party's ideological leaders is Periyar (E.V. Ramasamy)... Under the current government, there is no safety for Dalits or even others because of the fragile law and order situation. I believe TVK can bring that change that makes everybody feel equal and safe here."
Rasipuram appears to have an urban-rural divide, with the town appearing to lean towards the BJP, the villages towards the DMK, and women considering the TVK.
A butcher named Vijay, from a Dalit hamlet of Athanur in this seat, told The Telegraph: “I don’t think any party is serious about ending caste discrimination. There has thankfully been no loss of life in recent times, but minor caste skirmishes do occur. I will vote for the DMK because only they can stop the BJP, which will cause even more caste oppression by bringing back schemes like Kula Kalvi Thittam in the name of the Vishwakarma scheme. I fear that under the AIADMK-BJP, caste violence could return. The DMK is quicker to quell any disturbance.”
Kula Kalvi Thittam was a hereditary education scheme introduced by the Congress government in 1953, which was withdrawn after protests by the DMK and others for reinforcing caste professions through the back door.
The current DMK government rejected the Prime Minister Vishwakarma Scheme — which offers interest-free loans for hereditary professions — on the same grounds and offers the Kalaignar Kaivinai Thittam, which provides financial assistance to artisans irrespective of their hereditary profession.
- Tamil Nadu votes on April 23