KCR to meet Stalin on Sunday

For the past several weeks, speculation has been rife over whether DMK has been trying to distance itself from the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached out to Stalin to discuss the possibility of a third front in March this year.

Even as the DMK leader dismissed any such move and claimed that their alliance with Congress remained intact, Stalin on Wednesday had endorsed Banerjee’s efforts to bring together regional parties. In a tweet, Stalin said, “DMK has always stood for the unity of regional parties and stronger federal co-operation. I endorse the efforts of @MamataOfficial to bring together various political parties to oppose the autocratic and antidemocratic rule of the BJP.” Mamata too responded within hours and said, “Thank you. We extend our full support.”

On Friday, while speaking at a public event in Hyderabad, Chandrasekhar Rao warned the Congress and BJP leaders to be on alert as a federal front was going to be formed besides announcing his proposed meeting with the DMK Working President.  KCR’s statement comes close on the heels of a letter written by Stalin on March 21 to all non-BJP chief ministers criticising the fiscal policy of the Centre which was alleged to be detrimental to the interests of many states. However, DMK leaders here claimed that in hosting KCR, Stalin was only making Congress an acceptable ally in ousting BJP.

“In hosting Mamata and KCR, our leader (Stalin) is only increasing the acceptability of the Congress party. Stalin is only making Congress acceptable for KCR. In Tamil Nadu, particularly the DMK, has always been leading the fight for a strong federal structure and hence they (regional parties from other states) are coming to us to fight the anti-democratic and autocratic BJP,” said I Paranthaman, DMK spokesperson and joint secretary of the party lawyers’ wing.