By IANS,
Chennai : A day after the meeting with N. Varadarajan, Tamil Nadu secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), actor-turned politician Vijaykanth Saturday said the alliance with the Left party will be decided only after the announcement of parliamentary elections.
“I respect the Left and love their policies. But the decision of an alliance will only be decided by the rank and file of my party after the parliamentary elections are announced,” Vijaykanth told reporters.
“The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) leader has clearly indicated to us that his party will go it alone in Tamil Nadu. Since we are talking to parties that have ruled out alliances with the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the meeting with Vijaykanth was yet another exercise to broaden our support base,” Varadarajan responded a little later.
Though alliances with filmstar-led parties is not new for the Left in Tamil Nadu, its discussion with Vijaykanth, who sees himself as an alternative to the two main Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu, indicates that the actor-turned-politician has attracted national attention thanks to the massive crowds attending his meetings.
Vijaykanth won his assembly seat from Vriddhachalam in the Vanniyar heartland controlled by PMK founder S. Ramadoss.
Political watchers see this as one more confusing jigsaw piece in Tamil Nadu politics.
“The Left would want to keep its options open with Ramadoss who wouldn’t want anything to do with Vijaykanth. Therefore, unless the DMDK chief is able to prove that he is bigger than the PMK, it is highly unlikely that the Left will take him seriously in a hurry,” said political commentator Cho S. Ramaswamy.
Meanwhile, the ruling DMK won a majority of the 629 local bodies’ by-elections held Thursday for which results were declared Saturday.
The opposition alleged massive rigging and the results of two seats in Madurai district have been ordered to be withheld till Sep 23 by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.