DMDK claims third front in TN

CHENNAI: Breaking away from the confusion that has descended on political parties in the face of the decision of the AIADMK and DMK to face the local body polls by themselves, DMDK chief Vijayakant on Tuesday declared the beginning of a ‘third front’ in Tamil Nadu’s political sphere. Though the DMDK only has the CPI(M) as a sure ally so far, Vijayakant expressed optimism for the new front’s prospects.“For the first time, a third front has emerged in Tamil Nadu,” declared the actorturned- politician. “This is a good thing and we request the people and the media to support it. It will spread like the branches of a banyan tree,” he added.Even as other parties in the AIADMK-led alliance, that fought the recent Assembly elections, stepped on glass over the state of their alliance with the AIADMK, Vijayakant has been the first party to take a clear stand by completely exiting the alliance.By calling the alliance a third front, Vijayakant adopted a nomenclature that his party had carefully avoided even in the political confusion leading up to the recent Assembly election.However, Vijayakant sidestepped questions on his gameplan for the by-elections in Tiruchy West. An announcement would come in due time, he said. He refused to dwell upon the reasons behind the breakdown of the alliance with the AIADMK. He said would go into the matter in depth at the many public meetings organised by his party in the run up to the local body elections, he said.Vijayakant’s comments came at a press conference he addressed jointly with CPI(M) State secretary G Ramakrishnan, in the presence of DMDK’s Panrutti Ramachandran and Sudheesh and CPI(M)’s P Sampath and Noor Mohammed.The actual intent of the meeting was to release the list of seats that have been allotted to the CPI(M) under agreement with the DMDK.According to this, CPI(M) will contest two mayoral seats (Coimbatore and Vellore), 25 municipalities and 61 town panchayats.