Chennai: ‘Captain’ Vijayakanth has finally made up his mind, tying up with the People’s Welfare Alliance (PWA) and thus ending the long suspense over his choice from among the many suitors. His DMDK will contest 124 seats while the PWA constituents-MDMK, VCK and the two Left parties-will have to share the remaining 110 among themselves. And of course, Captain will be King if the DMDK-PWA front wins the elections as the coalition has accepted him as its chief minister candidate.
The joint statement issued by the DMDK and the PWA at the end of a meeting of their leaders at DMDK office in Koyambedu Wednesday morning crashed whatever little hopes that the DMK and the BJP might have had of signing the actor-politician for the May 16 state polls. Needless to say chief minister Jayalalithaa should be happy as now her chances of returning to Fort St.George for the sixth term have considerably brightened with this split in the anti-AIADMK votes, which archrival DMK chief M. Karunanidhi tried hard to avoid by pleading with Vijayakanth for alliance till the very last minute. Captain’s perceived vote share of 5-8 per cent could matter in a closely contested poll.
The day began with the PWA leaders--MDMK general secretary Vaiko, VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, CPI (M) state secretary G. Ramakrishnan and CPI state secretary R Mutharasan-arriving together at the DMDK office to finalise the alliance and make the formal announcement to the media. They had also brought the ‘customary’ silk shawls to honour their newly crowned
king.
“The four party leaders met me today and said they desired to be kingmakers and I must be the king. I agreed. Vaiko wanted to know if we will form a coalition government if our front wins the elections and I had no hesitation in saying ‘yes’. I had no hesitation”, Mr Vijayakanth told his supporters in the party office.
