Date:23/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/23/stories/2008082358340100.htm

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“CPI (M) began campaign against DMK a month ago”

Special Correspondent

Clear indication that it wants to leave alliance: Karunanidhi

M. Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: The CPI (M) had begun a campaign against the DMK in a phased manner even a month ago with the intention of moving out of the alliance, Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi said on Friday.

The statement of Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary N. Varadarajan on Thursday against the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was a clear indication that the CPI (M) had planned to leave the alliance with the DMK, he said.

Mr Karunanidhi said that after he had disapproved of the DMK treasurer and Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veeraswami’s criticism of the CPI (M), Mr. Varadarajan predicted that the DMK, by aligning with the Congress, would suffer a political setback.

Reacting to Mr. Varadarajan’s description of the Congress as a sinking ship, the DMK president said that the high-ranking Communist leaders, who were conscious that the Congress was a sinking ship, had held negotiations with Congress leaders and had made a number of visits to Chennai almost till the conclusion of the nuclear deal, were “open secrets.”

“Did they not know then that the Congress had seen electoral reverses in some States? Was the defeat of the Congress in some States the real reason for the Marxists to withdraw their support? Was the nuclear deal issue a manufactured reason,” Mr. Karunanidhi asked.

Recalling his participation in the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address in March 2000, the Chief Minister said he had referred to the Jan Sangh, a precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Communist Party of India being present in coalition governments that were formed in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after the 1967 Assembly polls.

The CPI(M) had refused to be part of the political front though it provided conditional support to the governments. In 1977, the Janata Party government was formed at the Centre under the leadership of Morarji Desai and consisted of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, both originally belonging to the Jan Sangh, which had by then merged with the Janata Party. The CPI(M) extended outside support to the Janata government.

During 1989-1990, the CPI (M) and the BJP provided outside support to the Union government with V.P. Singh as Prime Minister.