Indicating that the third front’s strategy of maintaining equidistance from the DMK and the AIADMK may not work in the long run, especially in the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol Thirumavalavan on Tuesday said the People's Welfare Front (PWF) cannot face the Parliamentary polls on an anti-Dravidian platform.
While Mr. Thirumavalavan made it clear the four-party PWF will contest the upcoming locally body polls on a common agenda, he said the VCK wanted to indicate its stand on the Parliamentary polls to its alliance partners now.
“We have to begin somewhere because we have to indicate our stand to our partners in the PWF and our party cadres as well. As far as the Lok Sabha polls are concerned, the overriding concern is to build a secular front against the BJP. This does not mean we had a flawed strategy and agendas in the Assembly elections,” the VCK leader told The Hindu .
According to him, many office-bearers of the VCK had expressed views strongly opposing the current agenda and the strategy of the PWF, which comprises the two Left parties, the MDMK and the VCK. “As we are under compulsion to explain our stand to our party cadres, we have started the debate,” he said.
Asked whether the VCK and other partners of the PWF would find new parties to align with for the Lok Sabha elections, he said while there was a clear idea about political parties that should be kept at a bay, it would be difficult to name the potential partners right now. “Alliance will be possible only if the leadership of the political parties we are willing to join hands are forthcoming,” he added.
Mr. Thirumavalavan said as the Lok Sabha poll was likely to witness a battle between what he called the communal BJP and the secular Congress, issues like communalism, secularism and democracy would dominate the campaign. “Issues like building an alternative to the DMK and the AIADMK and implementing prohibition will not cut ice with the voters. Though Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has launched a movement for prohibition, it is not clear whether we could evolve a national prohibition policy,” he said.
Mr. Thirumavalavan, one of the architects of the PWF, said the existing front itself could be converted into a secular front for the Lok Sabha polls. “The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is anti-Dalit and anti-minority and is pursuing a communal agenda. We have to defeat communalism and save democracy,” he contended.
‘As far the LS polls are concerned, the objective is to build a secular front against the BJP’
