CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu seems set for another round of political realignment with DMK looking to rope in more parties in its fold after an all-party meet it has called for April 16 to discuss the problems of farmers.
As expected, two parties of the fragmented People’s Welfare Alliance - CPI and VCK - have decided to walk into Anna Arivalayam, headquarters of DMK, but the other party, CPI-M, is yet to a take its call. The DMK, which has a strength of 89 MLAs, is trying to capitalising on the volatile political situation that arose following the demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and later the factionalism in AIADMK. At present, the AIADMK factions are said to be bickering over merger to ward off any threat to the government.
The DMK developed bonhomie with the then chief minister O Panneerselvam in its bid to keep V K Sasikala away from the throne. When OPS revolted and began attacking her, DMK surreptitiously supported him. It went to the extent of indulging in violence in the State Assembly during trust vote on February 18, but the rebels could not muster the numbers to dislodge the government.
The situation changed after murmurs of a possible merger of both AIADMK factions. It led DMK working president M K Stalin to take on OPS over the past few days, sources said.
In order to strengthen his camp, Stalin is looking to roping in more parties in his alliance, which is why he has timed the all-party meet on the farmers’ issue.
“The meet will witness certain parties coming into our side. It will help us strengthen our alliance and look for ways to fight the local body polls to defeat the AIADMK,” a senior DMK leader said. The party also appears to be wooing the PMK, as a delegation of DMK leaders met S Ramadoss at his official residence, ‘Thailapuram’, on Friday and handed him the invitation for the all party meet. Meanwhile, hectic parleys have been on over the last few days to strike a compromise formula and finalise the names to head the party and the government, by keeping Sasikala and her family away.