Vivanesh Parthiban
Chennai, Feb 2: Are emerging parties which form alliance with the major parties at the verge of election cheating their followers and people? With the ongoing cry and anger among netizens on the alliance between AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and PMK (Paatali Makkal Kathchi), do these alliances serve the greater cause of the society or just the parties that forged alliance?
DMK Spokesperson Tamilan Prasanna said,” alliance politics as such is not bad but it must have an agenda for the people”. He also added that DMK-Congress is going to form an alliance for the 6th time in a Lok Sabha election and our alliance is based on Secular politics against the Modi Government. He said, “If PMK-AIADMK alliance has an agenda then it must be money”.
CPI (M) spokesperson R.Sindhan said,” Alliance politics has been vastly misused by parties in recent times who consider coalitions as an option to retain votes in election”. He also added that best example of coalition politics is the alliance between INC and CPI (M) in UPA-2(2009-14) when CPI (M) pushed many social security schemes like MNREGA using the alliance.
The other emerging parties like Naam Tamilar katchi(NTK) run by Seeman and MNM (Makkal Nedhi Mayyam) lead by Kamal Hassan are going to contest in all 40 seats in upcoming elections.
Idumbavanam Karthikeyan, Naam Tamilar katchi(NTK) spokesperson said,” people don’t understand the history of a party, If they would have a small knowledge about PMK which has been switching sides over years then it would not be a big shock to them.” He also added that Anbumani Ramdoss (MP from Dharmapuri and Youth wing president of PMK) had created a big trust among the youth of Tamil Nadu and broke it by aligning with the same AIADMK government even though he abused in his rallies. He said,” an emerging party has a lot of dilemma whether it can win a seat in election or not but it must have some principle or ideology which it should uphold even when it forms an alliance which is illusive in PMK-AIADMK alliance.”
Murali Abbas, spokesperson of Makkal Nedhi Mayyam(MNM) said,” alliance politics should not come out of opportunism like the PMK-AIADMK alliance”. He also added that Anbumani Ramadoss has cheated all his followers and he was the one who lodged complaints to Governor on the Gutka scam by the AIADMK”. He said,” If a party promises change but chooses the same ruling party we don’t find any principle at work other than money in this alliance politics”.
PMK youth wing leader Ramadoss in his press release said he is not embarrassed about justifying PMK’s alliance with AIADMK and BJP. He also added People have accepted this alliance and in the last four elections PMK could not win only because of bad alliances and that will not happen with this alliance.
Ilaiya Thalaimurai, a political activist group’s leader Shankar said,” In India as we follow the first past post system whoever corner majority seats win the election wins.” He also said,” alliance politics is needed in this system because we don’t follow a representative electorate where all communities are represented, this may not be true for a single majority party in the first past post system”. He said,” Indian democracy even allows post poll alliances which is even worse than an alliance that happens before the election”. He also said,” We cannot accuse PMK alone for this opportunistic politics because last time when they contested alone it could not win any seat”. He also said,” this alliance is not a big shock to me because we have even seen DMK-BJP alliance in 2001”. He said,” Emerging parties in Tamil Nadu has a huge barrier because of this Dravidian parties which has a huge vote base as the emerging party lose confidence over time they ally with any one of this party to sustain in politics.” He also added that at least an alliance must serve a section of society in the state but some alliances are completely driven by money which dents the trust the people have in the party.
Two Dravidian parties have about 1 crore party members alone which make the two parties equally formidable in elections. If a third front has to emerge in Tamil Nadu it needs a great leader or an ideology that can attract people to its side. In 2016 election when People welfare front was formed as an alternative to the two Dravidian parties they could not make an impact on the election result which affected the morale of the emerging parties in Tamil Nadu. Alliance among the emerging parties was not a solution to break the dominance of the Dravidian Parties. Thus many emerging parties like the VCK (Viduthali Chiruthaigal Katchi) and PMK stands too loose to sustain their parties without alliance.
CITY PULSE 