“We have been with the party for the past 10 years, but only new members and those willing to fund the party are given significant roles. They are the ones who get to contest elections. He doesn’t even consider our opinions,” Surya said to ThePrint.
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Discontent with Seeman’s leadership style, over 400 party members from Krishnagiri resigned the same day as Surya. Just a week earlier, more than 100 members from NTK’s Dharmapuri district unit also left the party.
Prabhakaran, now a former NTK functionary from Dharmapuri, confirmed that around 100 members resigned from the party, citing a lack of recognition from the leadership as the primary reason for their departure.
“If everything is dictated by the party head, what’s the point of appointing district-level functionaries?” questioned Prabhakaran. “Seeman needs to realise that the true strength of the party lies not only in its leadership but also in its grassroots workers,” he added.
Weeks before, Salem district secretary Azhagapuram Thangam, Mettur vice-president Jeevanandham, Tirunelveli district secretary Kannan, Tirunelveli Youth wing secretary Parven, Nanguneri assembly constituency secretary Antony Vijay left the party.
ThePrint spoke to a cross section of these former NTK members.
NTK’s former Salem district secretary Azhagapuram Thangam said that the old-timers were being ignored.
“We do not even get to speak to him to convey our opinions. He knows that we have a dissenting opinion, so he avoids hearing us. We did not have an option rather than to leave the party to show him what we meant to the party,” he said.
According to him, in Salem alone, more than 150 of them have resigned from the party primary membership.
However, Seeman refutes these claims, suggesting that the media is exaggerating the situation. “Show me one party where every decision is discussed with the cadres. To maintain order, such decisions are necessary,” he told ThePrint.
He further argued that the party is not in crisis, claiming that more people are joining than leaving. “Those who have left are like weeds hindering the party’s growth. Now that they’ve gone voluntarily, the party will expand significantly beyond what was seen in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Seeman said.
Political analysts in the state suggest that NTK’s structure might not be severely impacted by these resignations since it isn’t a cadre-based party but one heavily influenced by Seeman himself.
Political commentator Raveenthran Duraisamy pointed out that NTK has a robust organisational structure, second only to the two major Dravidian parties.
“After the Dravidian parties, NTK has the most booth-level functionaries across the state, which helped them achieve state party status. Though we speak about the number of people who are leaving the party, we do not look at the number of people joining the party from the Dravidian parties. If the streak of the NTK continues in the next election, they will secure a double-digit vote percentage,” Duraisamy said to ThePrint.
The party has also been actively conducting membership drives across the state since last week.
Since its entry into the electoral arena, the NTK has consistently contested elections independently, steadily increasing its vote share over time.
In its debut assembly election in 2016, the party garnered 1 percent of the votes. This improved significantly in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where NTK secured 3.88 percent.
The political landscape shifted following the passing of two prominent Dravidian leaders—M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa. In the 2021 assembly elections, NTK capitalised on the changing dynamics, doubling its vote share to 6.5 percent.
Most recently, in the Lok Sabha elections, the party got 8.3 percent of the votes, earning recognition as a state party, second only to Thol. Thirumavalavan’s Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK).
NTK’s growth in Tamil Nadu
Director-turned-politician Seeman, widely recognised for his vocal advocacy for Sri Lankan Tamils, transformed his political movement Naam Tamilar Iyakkam into a formal party in 2010. But instead of establishing a new entity, he revived the Naam Tamilar Katchi, originally founded by S.P. Adithanar in 1958, marking the beginning of his political journey.
Seeman’s fiery speeches on Tamil identity, land, and language resonated strongly with the youth, becoming a rallying point in the lead-up to the 2016 assembly polls. On inter-state issues, particularly the disputes between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he was among the first to stage a hunger strike, in the years leading up to the 2016 polls.
Former professor and Head of the Tamil Department at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Dr A. Ramasamy, attributed Seeman’s charisma on public stages as the key factor in attracting crowds and drawing young people to the party. However, he also pointed out that it is the very same younger people who are now leaving the party.
“His fierce speeches and heroic actions were inspired by the youngsters. Those who joined the party 10 years ago or in the past years, were young at the time of joining, but after working within the party and alongside Seeman, many came to know of the problem with his ideology. As a result, they are now gradually leaving the party,” he said.
Inspired by Seeman’s speeches, NTK’s former district secretary Kannan, who joined the party in 2014, shared that he never imagined Seeman would disregard his own members when he first began following him a decade ago.
“I was inspired by his speeches about Sri Lankan Tamils and thought he would be more democratic. But, in recent years, things have not been the same. Forget grassroot workers, he does not even seek the opinion of district secretaries like me to pick a candidate for elections. If I don’t have a say in party activities, I feel there is no point in staying in the party,” Kannan said, adding that more than 100 of his supporters from the district have resigned and are contemplating joining another party which supports them.
Such exodus not a first in the state
NTK is not the first political party in the state to experience such a mass exodus. The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), founded by the late actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth, saw significant support in its early years, securing 8.5 percent of the votes in the 2006 assembly elections, even with the two Dravidian stalwarts competing. The party continued to perform well, securing 10.3 percent vote share in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when it contested independently across all 39 constituencies in the state.
The steady growth in vote share enabled the party to ally with AIADMK for the 2011 assembly elections. Although the party contested fewer seats and secured only 8 percent of the votes, it managed to send 29 MLAs to the 234-member state assembly, becoming the primary opposition party and pushing the DMK to third place.
Despite this rise, the DMDK secured only 2.4% of the vote in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, largely due to a series of resignations from the party since 2013. Senior leaders, including Panruti S. Ramachandran, an AIADMK veteran from the MGR era, left DMDK in 2013, followed by Ma Foi K. Pandiarajan in 2016, who later became a minister in the AIADMK government. These departures significantly weakened the party, costing it dearly.
Ramasamy argues that this is where the Dravidian parties stand apart from the smaller parties that have emerged in the past decade.
“Dravidian parties have never been solely identified with the top leader at the party headquarters. They are built on a strong network of regional, district-level, union, and panchayat-level leaders. These grassroots leaders play a crucial role in holding the party together. In contrast, while regional functionaries in NTK have been leaving the party, they have not been seen as potential,” said Ramasamy.
Nevertheless, NTK’s youth wing coordinator Idumbavanam Karthik maintains that the party has been stable and has begun the preparatory works for the 2026 assembly elections.
However, speaking to ThePrint, NTK leader Idumbavanam Karthik asserted that they are “more robust” than the Dravidian parties.
“In fact, we have even identified and announced candidates for some of the assembly constituencies 15 months prior to the election. If we did not have the cadre strength, we would not have been able to do this. We are in the process of training our booth level workers to work for the 2026 assembly election,” he said.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
