CHENNAI, JUN 12 (PTI): The ruling TVK’s game-changing offer of a share in power, long-term survival strategies, and grassroot pressure led to the migration of DMK’s allies to the actor-politician Vijay-led party, a source said.
The latest to announce the plans to gravitate towards the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) is the CPI.
The rise of TVK has upset the political dynamics of the Dravidian majors and also the BJP, which are losing their leaders. While the AIADMK suffered an initial split and lost four of its legislators, the DMK’s allies — the Left parties, VCK, and IUML — migrated to the TVK with some of them settling for a berth in the Cabinet.
The Congress was the first to sever ties with the DMK and join the TVK government. Later, the VCK and IUML joined Vijay’s Cabinet, while the Left parties have extended support to the TVK.
The BJP too was impacted by TVK’s growth in Tamil Nadu’s political landscape with its former president K Annamalai quitting the party and announcing to float his own political outfit.
“The exodus was fueled by an accumulation of grassroots pressure and long-term survival strategies. The realignment was largely driven from the cadres across the DMK allied parties who have strongly favoured a tie-up with the TVK,” a senior CPI leader said.
DMK’s regional isolation has made the party rework its strategy, while the AIADMK has made the rebel MLAs to patch up.
CPI state secretary M Veerapandian categorically said that his party was no longer part of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance in the state. The prevailing political circumstances are not conducive to the party for remaining in the alliance, he explained.
“The CPI will always be part of the democratic forces. The DMK, AIADMK and the TVK are all democratic forces, and we do not view them as our enemies. Our ideological enemies are the BJP and the RSS,” Veerapandian had told reporters in Coimbatore on June 11.
Earlier this week, CPI(M) state secretary P Shanmugam had said that the DMK-led SPA no longer existed in the state and that his party was not part of that alliance anymore.
He, however, said his party would stand with the DMK on shared common political issues.
Denying a charge that the DMK’s allies consulted its president M K Stalin on supporting the TVK, Shanmugam had told reporters in Pudukottai, recently, that their decision to extend outside support to the TVK was taken “independently.”
