AIADMK merger: CPM leader Prakash Karat calls alliance 'opportunistic', alleges BJP's role in it

Coimbatore: CPM politburo member Prakash Karat on Monday termed the merger of AIADMK factions as opportunistic and alleged that the BJP was behind it. “The opportunistic decision by the two factions, at the behest of BJP. will be rejected by the people of Tamil Nadu,” he told reporters at the airport in Coimbatore. [caption id=“attachment_1673753” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Prakash Karat. AFP[/caption] Karat is in the city to participate in a function to launch a People’s Forum, in which leaders of major political parties, like Rajya Sabha MP, Kanimozhi of DMK and Viduthalai Chiraithagal president, Tirumavalavan and like minded parties following the ideologies of Karl Marx, Ambedkar and Periyar. The CPM leader said that joining hands with ‘communal forces’ like BJP will be dangerous to AIADMK and also the people of Tamil Nadu, “who will totally reject this opportunism.” Over six months after a bitter split, rival AIADMK factions on Monday merged following a power sharing arrangement under which K Palaniswamy will remain the chief minister and O Panneerselvam will be his deputy. Panneerselvam will also be the AIADMK coordinator while Palaniswamy will be the co-coordinator of the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, while VK Sasikala’s fate as the interim general secretary hangs in balance. Her loyalists continued to maintain that party cadres are with Sasikala, who is in jail in a graft case, even as the fate of the sidelined leader and her nephew Dinakaran in the party remained uncertain.