‘Third front will defeat MK at Tiruvarur to show its power’

Chennai

In an interview to DT Next, CPI State Secretary R Mutharasan says why DMK and AIADMK find the third front as a threat.

Despite your (DMDKPWF-TMC) rabble-rousing campaign against the AIADMK and DMK, both seem to ignore the presence of ‘third front’ in their campaigns. Both Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa are attempting to hide their fear by pretending to ignore us in their campaigns.

Both the parties are into a tacit understanding as they don’t want the coming of third front in the state politics. The DMK leader has said that ‘he is searching for the third front but couldn’t find’, but the people have searched and found the alternative to AIADMK and DMK. May be, Karunanidhi will realise the presence of third front when our candidate Masilamani defeats him in his home constituency, putting an end to his unbeaten record.

Critics have charged the DMDK-PWF-TMC front as ‘opportunistic’ as all its constituents were earlier part of AIADMK or DMK led alliances in the state.

In the past, there has been no other option so we used DMK to oust AIADMK and vice versa. Helping DMK or AIADMK to form government was not the sole aim of those electoral pacts. Not just us, even the people didn’t have much choice, so they had to elect either DMK or AIADMK. But now the chance has come to form a viable and strong third front. This is also mainly because of the external factors as even the people feel a strong need for an alternative to the corrupt Dravidian parties. People have got the chance now and I am confident that they will use this to their advantage.


Major parties including DMK have opined that coalition government is not feasible in the state.

This is based on their past experience. In 1980, Indira Gandhi-led Congress and DMK faced elections together with the agreement to form a coalition  government. But they both backstabbed each other by spoiling other’ winning prospects in an attempt to win more seats than their partner and so this ended up in a disaster. We believe that coalition government is the antidote to the deep rooted corruption. Dravidian parties are averse to this idea as they want to place themselves above scrutiny.


Opposition parties have accused that many leaders of the Front have opted out of contest due to fear of loss.

My main duty is to ensure the victory of our alliance candidates and not to become a MLA. Though other leaders, G Ramakrishnan (CPM) and GK Vasan (TMC) too have opted out of contest, this cannot be misconstrued as fear. As for Vaiko, a seasoned parliamentarian he has nullified the plot by DMK to create communal tension by opting out of contest. Fear of loss is just a propaganda to belittle us.