The 2024 Lok Sabha election is about who should not become the Prime Minister and not about who becomes one, DMK President M K Stalin said on Thursday(March 2), a day after he asserted that talks of a Third Front are “pointless” and asked all parties opposed to the BJP to come together.
In a brief interaction with the media, Stalin said he was “already in national politics” and that his statements made on Wednesday(March 1) at a public meeting to mark his 70th birthday reflect his views on what needed to be done for the 2024 polls.
“I keep repeating this and I said this again, yesterday. Our current stand is that we are clear on who shouldn’t be the Prime Minister rather than who should be the Prime Minister,” Stalin said in a response to a question about whether he will involve himself in the process of finding a PM nominee.
Stalin’s statement comes a day after he pitched for Congress as the fulcrum of the Opposition alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He also made a fervent appeal to parties opposed to the BJP to “stand united” and fight the polls together, even as he dismissed the talk of a Third Front as “pointless.”
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was also categorical that an anti-BJP front without the Congress was not a “workable option” and said Opposition parties in the country should take a leaf out of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, an amalgamation of several political parties, which has won all elections held in Tamil Nadu after 2019.
“Opposition parties should be united. At the same time, we should reject the talks about the non-Congress alliance. It will not work out. Post-electoral alliance is also not practical. Talks of Third Front are pointless. It (Third Front) will never reach the shore. All political parties opposed to the BJP should understand this simple electoral arithmetic and stand united,” Stalin had said.
The DMK chief’s assertion comes as a major boost for the Congress, which is still being cold-shouldered by several Opposition parties. More than once, Stalin underlined the importance of Congress in taking on the BJP, while also asking the grand old party to bury its differences with others.