The People’s Welfare Front, a rainbow alliance of six prominent political outfits in Tamil Nadu, came out on Thursday evening with details of the constituencies to be contested by each constituent party in the May 16 Assembly election. Vaiko, the MDMK leader, who is the general convener of the PWF, told media persons at the headquarters of the Vijayakant-led DMDK that they have finalised the sheat sharing after a marathon discussion which lasted for three days.
According to the agreement reached between the leaders of the PWF, the DMDK would contest in 104 seats, while MDMK, the second largest constituent in the front has been allotted 29 seats. Tamil Manila Congress, the new entrant has been given 26 constituencies while the VCK, the CPI(M) and CPI has been allotted 25 seats each.
“We will complete the candidates selection by Friday evening and all of us will hit the campaign trail by Saturday,” declared Vaiko. He said the six leaders of the alliance who were working together all these weeks would spread out in the coming days to campaign in all parts of the State. “Vijayakant, our Chief Ministerial candidate, will campaign in all the 234 constituencies to solicit votes for the PWF candidates,” disclosed Vaiko.
Interestingly, even as the PWF leaders were announcing the details of the constituencies to be contested by each member of the alliance, the DMK owned TV channel Kalaignar TV and the Marans owned Sun TV were flashing news that the discussion between PWF leaders has broken down and the rainbow alliance is all set to be disintegrated.
Though the AIADMK has been the DMK’s main “enemy”, the last couple of weeks saw the PWF replacing Jayalalithaa and the AIADMK as the main targets. The DMK ensured the defection of senior leaders of MDMK and the DMDK to the former’s camp. Senior leaders of the TMC too walked over to the Congress camp protesting against the party’s decision to cast lots with the PWF. Peter Alphonse, prominent leader of the TMC walked out of the party and returned to Satyamoorthy Bhavan, the TNCC headquarters on Saturday and he was welcomed by TNCC president EVKS Elangovan and Khushboo, party spokesperson and the rising star in Tamil Nadu Congress. Even a sulking P Chidambaram was present to welcome Alphonse, who is expected to strengthen the faction in the party led by the former Union Finance Minister.
The common refrain of all those who left their parent organisation and joined either the DMK or the Congress has been the same; “The PFW is the B team of the AIADMK”. The charge was coined and spread by the DMK leadership, which is upset with the mass appeal the PWF has built over the last one month, especially among the youth in Tamil Nadu. The Sunday rally at Kancheepuram organised by the PWF drew a mammoth crowd in which more than half were people in the 18-30 age group.