People’s Welfare Front, a five-party alliance of the CPI, CPI(M), MMK, MDMK and VCK, which had declared that it would give both the AIADMK and DMK a run for their money in the next Assembly election, is disintegrating at a speed faster than it was formed.
The first to suffer a major setback in the alliance was the MDMK and its leader Vaiko. Most prominent leaders of the MDMK have crossed over to the DMK ditching Vaiko, the founder of the rabid Tamil nationalist party. Though Vaiko continued his brave posture in public, MDMK insiders conceded in private that the exodus from the party to the DMK was in full swing.
Taken aback by the mass exodus of party leaders to the DMK, Vaiko is undertaking a State-wide tour covering all Assembly constituencies following the footsteps of MK Stalin, the DMK’s chosen heir who is touring the State in the run up to the election. But Nanjil Sampath, a long time associate of Vaiko, said on Monday that MDMK chief is an untrustworthy and unreliable person. “He always jumps from one front to another to suit his convenience. Vaiko is a spent force,” said Sampath who joined the AIADMK recently.
With the MDMK getting weakened, MMK, another constituent of the PWF developed cold feet and announced its decision to dissociate from the front. The MMK, an Islamic outfit, had contested the 2011 Assembly election as an ally of the AIADMK. The party had switched over its loyalty to the DMK just before the 2014 lok Sabha election and then to the PWF recently.
With the election round the corner, MH Jawahirullah, the MMK leader and its MlA is trying to find out a safe nest in the AIADMK camp. “We need to win elections to sustain our party. Other parties also join one alliance or another as the election approaches though they make lot of hue and cry initially. Only difference is that we have done it well in advance,” Jawahirullah told reporters announcing his decision to quit the PWF. To catch chief minister Jayalalithaa’s attention, Jawahirullah endorsed the AIADMK resolution hailing Jayalalithaa for the success of the Global Invester’s Meet held last month.
Monday turned out to be a bad day for the PWF with DMK spokesman TKS Elangovan questioning the raison- de-etre of the front. “The PWF is a creation of the AIADMK. This has been done to ensure that no parties join the DMK-led alliance. We are sure of more and more parties joining the DMK-led alliance,” Elangovan told a Tamil news channel on Monday.
The VCK , a Dalit outfit led by Thol Thirumavalavan, too is not sure of its continuation in the PWF. Thirumavalavan has said his party would like to be part of the ruling dispensation, whether it is led by the AIADMK or the DMK. Though he was present in the PWF meeting held on Monday, the Dalit leader looked uncomfortable in the company of the lefts and the MDMK.
Both VCK and MMK have expressed their desire to align with either the AIADMK or the DMK. They will join the bandwagon which offers them more seats. M Karunanidhi, the DMK chief, who badly wants to win the 2016 Assembly election has no qualms in accepting them.