Left to target DMK-BJP combine

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 22. The Left parties will direct their fire towards the DMK-BJP combine during the campaigning for the coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu while preferring to maintain a distance from the AIADMK-led front.

The AIADMK has a tie-up with the CPI(M) and the CPI as also with the Congress and the PMK in the State. While the CPI(M) and the CPI have been allocated eight seats each, the Congress and the PMK have greater representation.

Despite being part of the combination, the Left parties will hit the campaign trail next week on their own, while extending support to the AIADMK in some areas. The probability of sharing a platform appears remote as the Left parties would prefer not to been seen in the company of the Congress, in particular, as they are pitted directly against it in neighbouring Kerala and West Bengal, which also go to the polls on May 10.

The thrust of the attack during the fortnight-long campaigning will be against the ruling DMK for aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the economic polices of the Centre being pursued and supported by the DMK through its representatives in the Vajpayee Government.

``The DMK has been supporting a communal party such as the BJP and has maintained silence after the Tehelka episode and when the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, commented recently on the Babri Masjid and the de jure existence of a Ram temple,'' the CPI national secretary, Mr. D. Raja, said today. He also criticised the DMK's alliance with caste-based parties such as the Dalit Panthers and the Puthiya Tamizhagam predicting they would ``regret'', the decision. ``How can these caste-based parties go with the DMK which is with the BJP, which perpetuates the caste system?''

The CPI has enough fodder to keeping firing at the DMK-BJP combine on the political plain, as also the Vajpayee government's economic policies and through it, the DMK.

The non-remunerative prices for paddy, sugarcane, coconut and other agricultural produce, lack of protection for small scale and traditional industries and the inability to generate employment opportunities are some of the issues with which the Left parties plan to berate the DMK and the BJP.

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