Smaller allies may quit major fronts to form third front

The two Dravidian parties have just begun seat sharking talks, but a few minor allies appear to be jumping ship already.

Indiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK) led by academician-politician TR Paarivendhar, has quit the DMK led secular alliance. Paarivendhar, who was elected to the Lok Sabha on DMK’s Rising Sun symbol from Perambalur in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, had indicated his change of loyalty a fortnight ago when his party leaders declared that they would not either contest in own symbol or quit the alliance, and that too when the symbol issue was not even in the contention.

The electoral understanding between leaders of the fledgling IJK and AISMK leader Sarath Kumar a few days ago suggests that DMK might not be the only party to lose an ally.

An ally of AIADMK, Sarath Kumar had hinted at a change of loyalty when he had called on VK Sasikala on former AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary on February 24.

The actor-politician, in fact, seems to be doing more than changing his own loyalty. His meeting with Sasikala and cementing ties with fledgling IJK, followed by meeting with Kamal Haasan suggests more to it than meets the eye.

DMK leaders who have caught whiff of the developments cited Kamal-Sarath meeting and admitted that some plan was in the offing to create a third front consisting of newcomers and fledgling parties to eat into their vote bank. A DMK senior unwilling to be quoted said the reported statement of Kamal, expressing readiness to accommodate TTV Dinakaran’s AMMK, was enough to comprehend that a plan was being mooted at the behest of some influential party in the ruling alliance to curtail DMK’s chances, like the People’s Welfare Alliance did in the 2016 Assembly polls.