Chennai: DMDK became the second political party to quit the Third Front after the TMC. Their argument to arrive at such a decision was that they only entered into an electoral alliance with the PWA and since elections are over, their alliance no longer existed.
DMDK treasurer A.R. Elangovan made the party’s stand of leaving the PWA to public when he told reporters that the DMDK would be facing the local body elections on its own.
Mr Vijayakanth has been under tremendous pressure from his partymen to quit the PWA since it did not help them at the hustings. The PWA-DMDK-TMC alliance drew a blank at the hustings with Mr Vijayakanth forfeiting his deposit from Ulundurpet.
Since local body elections are approaching, the DMDK leader has been conducting review meetings with his party cadre and eliciting their views on alliance factor.
Party sources said majority of the cadre wanted Mr Vijayakanth to snap ties with the PWA, whose leaders appeared reconciled with the fact that DMDK and TMC were out of bounds for them politically.
“DMDK and TMC just had seat-sharing adjustment with the PWA. PWA consists only of MDMK, VCK and Left. Decision on alliance is every party’s prerogative and I don’t want to comment on the decision (of DMDK and TMC),” CPI state secretary Mutharasan said.
MDMK chief and PWA coordinator Vaiko also spoke in similar vain saying friendly ties with the two parties would continue, though they are not part of the alliance now.
“They were with us during elections. We are friends and our friendly ties would continue. I can only say as much,” Mr Vaiko said.
On Monday, TMC chief G.K. Vasan had announced that his party just had an “electoral understanding” with the DMDK-PWA, dropping enough hints that the alliance is over after the polls have ended.
