Sonia Gandhi unveils M Karunanidhi's statue in Chennai; Chandrababu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan among other Opposition leaders present

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Sunday unveiled a statue of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi in Chennai, as the occasion became a platform for Opposition unity. Apart from Sonia Gandhi, other prominent Opposition leaders who marked their presence were Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury. [caption id=“attachment_5740591” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sonia Gandhi at the unveiling of the statue of M Karunanidhi. Image courtesy: Twitter/@ANI[/caption] At the DMK headquarters, the party’s president MK Stalin asked Sonia Gandhi to unveil the statue. Karunanidhi , a former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, died on 7 August. Earlier, in a letter to party cadres, Stalin had said his recent visit to Delhi to meet several leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, to invite them for the inauguration of the late M Karunanidhi’s statue, showed that all Opposition parties were on the same page in dislodging the BJP regime at the Centre. Hitting out at the BJP as it was “against pluralism and autonomy of States”, he had said the defeat of the saffron party, which began in the five states which went to polls recently, will  continue in other parts of the country as well, including Tamil Nadu, in the Lok Sabha polls. In November last, speculation had grown about a possible understanding between the BJP and the DMK after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid a visit to the ailing M Karunanidhi. However, the presence of Opposition leaders at the unveiling of the statue on Sunday is being seen as a step forward for an anti-BJP front. With inputs from PTI