Time right for a third front in TN: Chidambaram

Congress Jananayaga Peravai leader and former Union minister P. Chidamabaram has said that time is ripe for an alternative front in Tamil Nadu and that if necessary he would contest the 2006 Assembly elections.

Speaking to The Indian Express, he said the ruling AIADMK would lose in the Assembly elections, as after MGR’s demise in 1987, no ruling party has been voted back to office. But a complication now is that the DMK is declining further. Hence it should be easier for the non-Dravidian parties to fill up the vacuum, he said.

When told that no body else was talking about a third front, Chidambaram said that PMK leader S. Ramadoss’s assertion that his party would form the government in 2006 is a pointer of sorts. ‘‘Ramadoss knows PMK alone cannot form the government. So read between the lines. PMK is preparing for an alliance,’’ he said.