Political realignments begin

Left snaps ties with AIADMK

The Left parties on Thursday decided to break ties with J Jayalalitha-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu after several rounds of failed parleys. 

This will prove to be a dampner for the the Third Front at the national level.

Annoyed with AIADMK’s one-sided decision to field candidates in all the 40 constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the CPM and the CPI also decided to go it alone in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

Just hours after the Left parties snapped their electoral tie-up with the ruling AIADMK, DMK president M Karunanidhi said his party would welcome if both CPI and CPM agreed to join. The BJP, meanwhile, got a boost with the PMK and DMDK declaring that they will enter into a negotiation with the saffron party.

Earlier, Jayalalitha had announced the party’s candidates for all the 40 Lok Sabha seats (39 in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry) declaring that the party’s candidates would withdraw in favour of allies once the seat sharing deals were finalised.

In a joint statement, CPI state secretary D Pandian and CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan said the Left parties had decided to contest the general elections together.
 “We have now decided to part ways and contest the elections alone,” the leaders said, after a two-hour long meeting at the CPM headquarters in Chennai. The statement added that the Left parties decided to align with the ruling AIADMK to defeat the Congress and the BJP. “But the deal could not be reached due to the AIADMK posture, despite holding several rounds of talks. 

“The ruling party has also announced candidates in all 40 constituencies and began its election campaign separately,” the leaders said.