Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss on Wednesday clarified that he had not said his party would not join the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu for the Assembly elections, and sought to assure DMK president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi that the PMK would not dash his hopes.
“The hopes of Kalaignar will never go waste,” said Dr. Ramadoss, while clarifying his stand after Mr. Karunanidhi's recent announcement in Delhi that PMK would be a part of the DMK-led front in the forthcoming Assembly polls in the State.
Contending that he had never told anyone ‘specifically' that the PMK would not join the DMK-led alliance, he said that when the media sought his reaction to Mr. Karunanidhi's remarks on the alliance, he had told them that the Chief Minister had the “right to express his wish.”
“I told them (media) that the PMK, for its part, will have to take a final decision at its general council meeting. I even said that we were yet to decide on many issues, including the total number of seats to be contested. But I had never stated that we would not join the DMK-led alliance,” he told The Hindu here on Wednesday.
Denying the allegations that he and the Chief Minister had contradictory views on the issue of alliance, Dr. Ramadoss said his party would “very soon” decide on it to put a “stop to all such speculations and presumptions.” He added that joining the winning alliance had been the primary agenda of all political parties, he said.
On whether he would prefer to opt out of an alliance that would accommodate actor-politician Vijayakant's DMDK, the PMK leader did not express his views directly. He, however, said that in pre-election alliances, everyone was a friend. “As the saying goes, there is neither a permanent friend nor a foe in the politics of Tamil Nadu.”
Alliances in Tamil Nadu were decided not on principles as in West Bengal, but on the ‘arithmetic' of each party's vote share and bargaining power. There had been no Common Minimum Programme (CMP) either prior to the polls or after it.
“In fact, PMK differs on various issues from the parties such as DMK, AIADMK and Left. But still we have been allies in the past and faced the polls,” he said.
The alliance in Tamil Nadu, he pointed out, was just a platform for vote-sharing among allies. “Wherever you are strong, cast your votes for us. And we will vote for you wherever we are strong. The percentage of votes each party commands alone decides the alliance.”
Even the parties, which took part in what is today called as the ‘tea party politics,' had one common agenda – to oust the Vajpayee government.
“There was no principle in play then. Now we all know where these parties stand,” he said.
Meanwhile, party president, G K Mani, who was to attend party meetings at Edapadi and Omalur along with Dr Ramadoss, left for Chennai on Wednesday morning.
