GMK leader to work for alternative front for Tamil Nadu assembly poll

Madurai: Gandhiya Makkal Katchi leader Tamilaruvi Manian, who played a crucial role in helping BJP head a rainbow alliance in Tamil Nadu for Lok Sabha elections last year, said he was working out a strategy to form a new front for the state assembly elections due next year, on Sunday.

NDA did not succeed in the state because there was no unity among the partners who were responsible for damaging the alliance.

They did not sit together and discuss the reasons for the defeat, Manian, who had played a key role in forming the seven-party alliance, told reporters here.

The NDA could manage to win only two of the 39 Lok Sabha seats - BJP and PMK one each - it contested.

All parties which had social responsibility, should come under one alliance excluding the "corrupt" DMK, AIADMK, Congress and BJP, Manian said.

He said if all other parties come together they could be an effective alternative to the DMK and AIADMK, which have been ruling the state alternately since 1967.

He said the presence of TMC leader GK Vasan and CPIM leader G Ramakrishnan at a meeting convened by him recently was an indicator of a new alternative alliance.

"I leave it your guess as to who all will be in the alternative alliance to be formed in the state," he said. The only hitch in forming such an alliance was the leaders of the respective parties wanted to be the Chief Ministerial candidate, he said.

In an apparent reference to PMK leader Dr S Ramdoss, whose party has announced his son Anbumani Ramadoss as its Chief Ministerial candidate, and DMDK founder Vijayakanth, he said such leaders were wearing a crown and are standing before a mirror, imagining that they would be the CM candidate. They should come out of such attitude.

Ramadoss has extended invitation to parties including the GMK of Manian for the alliance his party want to lead for the assembly polls.