Post DMK meet, BJP emerges as main target of ruling party

CHENNAI: The just concluded DMK general council has largely kept the Opposition AIADMK out of its agenda. It was obvious from the speeches of every DMK leader on the dais that the focus was on the BJP-led Centre and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Chief Minister MK Stalin did not have any qualms in confirming it by instructing his cadre to start setting up booth committees for the LS polls due in mid 2024. A senior DMK leader unwilling to be quoted reasons that the task ahead is unseating the BJP in 2024 even to run the state freely.

“The incumbent regime in Delhi will impose more restrictions and literally incapacitate the states if they are re-elected again. Obliterating state parties and making it an one-party nation is their long-term agenda. So, it is imperative for state parties like us to stop the BJP to sustain ourselves,” the DMK senior added.

“The AIADMK is as good as a defunct party. Setting its own house (party) in order is high on the priority of its leaders. They are busy expelling and inducting supporters between the two camps. Occasionally, they will issue a statement or two about our government. So, bashing an already weak party will only offer them political fodder and do no good to us. That is why our leaders largely ignored the AIADMK. Our party chief also spoke about the AIADMK in a near sympathetic tone,” reasoned a state level DMK functionary on condition of anonymity.

“The ground must be prepared from now for the Parliamentary polls. The BJP is doing it in the Hindi heartland already. Congress party is taking out a nationwide yatra (Bharat Jodo) to weaken the BJP. Should we not do it here,” argued the DMK functionary.

That the target of the DMK had been shifted to BJP was evident from the daring statement of DMK’s influential youth wing secretary and Chepauk MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin’s that the DMK would not hesitate to go on battle mode if the BJP continued to be vengeful.

If sources in the DMK are to be believed, the DMK high command has instructed its spokespersons to add venom to their attack against the BJP.