CPM will join hands with DMK for upcoming polls, says Sitaram Yechury after meeting with MK Stalin

CHENNAI: CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday met DMK President MK Stalin at the latter's residence in Chennai amid talks of an alliance between the two parties. After the meeting, Yechury said that CPM will join hands with the DMK for the upcoming elections.

"We have decided today that in Tamil Nadu we will be with the DMK in the forthcoming elections. We are together on the issue of saving the unity, integrity and harmony of the people of India and the country's constitutional institutions," Yechury said.

Stalin had earlier said that Yechury meeting him showed that the CPM wants to have an alliance with the DMK. Stalin had also said that parties 'flocking' to the DMK indicated that they "guard the ideals devised by Kalaignar (late patriarch M Karunanidhi)."

The Congress, the Indian Union Muslim League and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) were among the parties that had contested the previous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls as part of the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. However, the equation for next year's polls is yet to be decided.

The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), led by Vaiko, had pledged its support to the DMK over a year ago, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) are also set to be part of the front in Tamil Nadu.

As part of the efforts to forge a front against the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Chandrababu Naidu had recently met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and called on JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. Naidu had also met Stalin last week fuelling speculations of an anti-BJP mahagatbandhan. 

Naidu will also be meeting Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata next week. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister will invite the West Bengal CM for the key meeting of the 'Mahagathbandhan' alliance partners scheduled on November 22 in Delhi.