Smaller parties see DMK as a safer bet

For, the Dalit leader knows better than others in the state polity that a third front or an alliance without one of the two major Dravidian parties would come a cropper in Tamil Nadu.

Losing by a wafer-thin margin of 87 votes was the best the six-party PWA (People’s Welfare Alliance) had managed to achieve in the 2016 Assembly election, which saw none of the members of alliance enter or only four parties (including DMK and AIADMK) enter the Legislative Assembly then. 

In the meeting between Rahul and Yechury, Tirumavalavan, who had campaigned for the DMK in the RK Nagar by-election, only indirectly attempted to advise the DMK against attempting misadventures like forging an alternative alliance. 

While he had no inhibition in admitting that he has sworn loyalty to the Congress already, the Dalit leader has also tried to cement his position in a possible DMK-led alliance comprising the Congress in Tamil Nadu, which would be his only ticket into the next Parliament.

“Given the position of the ruling AIADMK, the next Lok Sabha election is likely to be one-sided like the Assembly election of 2011, which, the AIADMK would have won even without Vijayakanth’s DMDK. So, being a part of the DMK- led alliance is the only way to secure a Lok Sabha berth in 2019. VCK leaders know the reality. The alliances may firm up close to the election, but it is already taking shape. VCK is only ensuring that the Congress was a part of the ploy,” said political commentator Aazhi Senthilnathan. “The same yardstick applies to the Left, which does not have the electoral strength. If they want to keep BJP out of power, they must be a part of a secular front, including the Congress and hence the CPM has softened its stand against the Congress in the Hyderabad conclave,” he added.