The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Thursday indicated that it will not be attending the INDIA bloc meeting scheduled to be held on Monday. Led by the Congress, 15 Opposition parties are expected to meet on June 8 at the Constitution Club in New Delhi to discuss their joint strategy to take on the BJP-led government and reinforce opposition unity.
TMC supremo and former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge are among those likely to attend the meeting, as per the sources.
The development follows a dramatic shift in Tamil Nadu’s political landscape after the just concluded Assembly elections, where the Congress parted ways with the DMK, to back a Government led by actor-politician C Joseph Vijay and his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). The realignment brought an end to years of Congress-DMK collaboration and led to an exchange of barbs between the two parties.
On Thursday, DMK MPs were also given the approval by the Lok Sabha secretariat to sit separate from Congress MPs in the lower house. Earlier, DMK leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking permission to change the seating arrangement in view of the emerging political circumstances.
Congress had contested the assembly polls as part of the pre-poll alliance with the DMK. This has led to acrimony between the two parties with senior DMK leaders calling this action of the Congress “backstabbing” and “betrayal”. Congress, however, justified its action, saying the DMK had also contested the 2014 election alone.
Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already distanced itself from the INDIA bloc and is not likely to attend the meeting, scheduled to take place at the Constitution Club.
