Chennai: A day after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held hands with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and announced efforts towards an anti-BJP coalition, DMK chief MK Stalin pledged his support for the initiative.
“Corrupt, autocratic and divisive forces are destroying the democratic fabric of our country. It is the need of the hour for all non-BJP parties to come together on a common platform. I congratulate @rahulgandhi and @ncbn for initiating steps towards this. They have my support”, said Stalin in a tweet on Friday.
The DMK chief said he wholeheartedly endorsed Naidu’s assertion that opposition unity against the BJP is a democratic compulsion to protect the nation. “All the regional parties must come together to defeat the BJP that has been stripping the autonomy of the states”, he has tweeted.
He said Rahul Gandhi’s statement that all the opposition parties must work together to defeat the BJP is an “important one”.
In fact, Stalin must be credited with authoring the very first initiative in recent time for bringing together an anti-BJP national coalition that could defeat the saffron party in the next Parliament poll. Several opposition leaders had shared the dais at a memorial meet his DMK had organised in August this year at Chennai to commemorate his father M Karunanidhi. The speakers, including Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPI (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, had invited Stalin to actively get involved in forging a coalition to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Ever since breaking away from the BJP in March this year over the refusal of the Modi Government to accord special status for Andhra Pradesh - because it suffered economically in the bifurcation and needed Centre’s support to build infrastructure and other inputs for a new state - -Naidu has been working hard at gathering anti-BJP political forces into a formidable army for the 2019 poll. His meeting with Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders at Delhi on Thursday is perhaps the climax of those coalition efforts.
“We are coming together. Both agree to not get into the past; we are going to talk about present and future. Because of what’s happening in the country" said Rahul Gandhi after his session with ex-foe Naidu.
