5 min readChennaiMar 2, 2023 07:31 AM IST
First published on: Mar 2, 2023 at 07:09 AM IST
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday called on all Opposition parties to unite to defeat the BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha elections. At a public rally organised in Chennai as part of his 70th birthday celebrations, Stalin dismissed the idea of a third front and urged all political parties to understand the simple arithmetic of electoral unity.
At the rally, Stalin was joined by senior Opposition leaders such as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, and National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah. Stalin made it clear that the main goal was to beat the BJP, not for any one party to win the election. Among those conspicuous by their absence were the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and the Left.
“The necessity of this period is not about who will win the 2024 Lok Sabha polls but about who should not be winning. BJP should be defeated for their efforts to make an India without diversity. The unity of parties itself means we have won,” Stalin said.
He added, “All regional parties should think of national politics too. I am telling all parties, including Congress, that unity is the secret to winning elections. In a 2021 public rally, I told Rahul Gandhi to take efforts to form a united opposition movement like in Tamil Nadu in all other Indian states. At the same time, arguments surrounding a third front also should be ignored. Alliance plans for post-elections also will not help defeat the BJP. Parties should rise above differences and stand together as a unified force to defeat BJP. Talks of a third front are pointless.”
Stalin’s comments on a third front in the general elections echoed the Congress’s position on the issue. At the recently concluded plenary session, the party said that the emergence of a third force would provide an advantage to the BJP.
The Tamil Nadu CM, meanwhile, attacked the BJP for allocating just Rs 12 crore for a project to build an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai years ago and for not placing a single brick at the site. “Isn’t it cheating our eight crore people in Tamil Nadu? The BJP is spending crores and crores of money for (promoting) Sanskrit but there is nothing for classical Tamil. The online rummy Bill is not being cleared by the Governor. Is it because he believes the Mahabharata contains gambling references?” Stalin said.
While GST derailed the state’s revenue models, the DMK leader said the deserving dues were also not being paid. “If this is how the BJP is fighting Opposition-ruled states in India, Lok Sabha election alone is the arena to fight and defeat the BJP,” Stalin said.
“The BJP is waging a war against Opposition-ruled states. So, 2024 is an opportunity to win our ideological battle. Let us together march towards that victory,” he said. Stalin appealed to the DMK cadre to work hard towards that aim in Tamil Nadu and win all 40 seats, adding that victory in those 40 seats would be their birthday gift to him.
Earlier, Kharge who spoke at the rally, said there was a “connection and affection between” the Congress and the DMK and that “it should be strengthened more”. Promising that the two parties would stand united, Kharge said, “I never said who will lead, (or) who will become the Prime Minister. Farooq sir, I am telling you … We are not saying who will or who will not but the point is fighting unitedly.”
Kharge’s comments about fighting together without bothering about the Prime Minister candidate were in response to Abdullah’s statement that the main goal should be to win the election and not the name of the PM candidate. “Let us first win the election and then think who is going to become the PM. It is not the Prime Minister who is important, but the nation. When the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra reached Kashmir, they saw hope in the eyes of the young people,” Abdullah told the crowd.
He said the strength of India was its people, not the Army, Navy or Air Force. “Whether we are Muslims or Sikhs or Christian, we are all from India, not from a foreign country. My demand is to work together. Wake up, unite, and create a nation to live with dignity and peace,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at a public meeting organised as part of Stalin's 70th birthday celebration in Chennai, March 1, 2023. (PTI)
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