In a major development, the CPI(M) and the CPI have decided to come out of the alliance led by the AIADMK. The decision is a follow up to the refusal of the AIADMK to part with the number of seats asked by the left parties.
According to insiders in the CPI(M), the party had asked for three seats but was ready to settle for two seats. But the AIADMK offered just one seat and did not respond to communication from the party leaders asking for two more seats.
“Since there is a break down in the talks between the AIADMK and our parties, we will hold discussions with the CPI on Thursday to decide the future course of action. We will take a joint decision with the CPI about what we should do if the talks with the AIADMK do not resume,” G Ramakrishnan, secretary, Tamil Nadu CPI(M) told The Pioneer. The State Committee of the CPI(M) met at Chennai on Tuesday and Wednesday to take stock of the situation. Party insiders told The Pioneer that the alliance with the AIADMK is off. “We may go for friendly contests,” said a party leader.
The CPI too was flabbergasted with the intransigent stance of the AIADMK. The friendly relations between AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa and CPI’s State Secretary David Pandian has not helped in reviving the talks on seat sharing. The AIADMK had offered the CPI one seat. “I am in the dark about what is happening. You are free to make your own conclusions,” Pandian told The Pioneer.
The first indications of the crumbling edifice of the AIADMK-left parties’ alliance appeared on Tuesday night during Jayalalithaa’s whirlwind election campaign at Sriperumbudur. She asked the voters to elect all the 40 candidates fielded by the party in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. There was no reference to the CPI(M) or the CPI during the one-hour speech
she delivered.
“You must strengthen my hands to usher in a change at the Centre. For this you have to vote for the AIADMK candidates in all the constituencies. I am confident that you will do it. Wont you do it”IJ she thundered at the hundreds of party activists who had come for the meeting.
During the 2009 lok Sabha elections, Jayalalithaa had allocated three seats each to the CPI and the CPI(M). The CPI and the CPI(M) won one each. But after the 2011 Assembly elections, Jayalalithaa has been exhorting her party workers to “go for a kill” and win a clean sweep of all the lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The AIADMK chief is campaigning at Nasgapattinam on Thursday. Interestingly, the constituency is considered as a CPI bastion. The AIADMK has fielded K Gopal from Nagapattinam while the CPI had staked its claim for the seat. Thursday’s Nagapattinam speech of Jayalalithaa will seal the fate of the AIADMK-left alliance in Tamil Nadu, according to veteran Tamil Nadu observers.