Stalin hints at new alliance for next Assembly polls

Hinting at a political realignment ahead of Assembly elections due next year in Tamil Nadu, senior DMK leader M K Stalin today said formation of an alliance to take on the ruling AIADMK was in the offing.
"Certainly, an opportunity to form an alliance is in the offing. When elections get nearer, it will come out openly", he told reporters here after calling on MDMK leader Vaiko.
Stalin, who met Vaiko at the latter's residence here and invited him for the marriage of his brother's son, was responding to a question whether there was a possibility to form an alliance to take on the Jayalalitha-led AIADMK before next polls.

Vaiko, whose party contested the Lok Sabha polls last year as a partner of NDA but snapped the ties later, said Stalin came to invite him for the marriage to be held next month.
"It is a happy day. We have been friends for several years. Definitely, myself and other MDMK senior leaders would attend the marriage," he said.
This is the first time in the last over eight years Stalin, son of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, has called on Vaiko, who broke away from DMK to form his own party MDMK in 1991.

Incidentally, the two leaders had met after a gap of eight years at a wedding in the family of PMK founder leader Dr S Ramadoss in October last year, which was welcomed by DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, who also said then that he would be happy if a new alliance materialised.

Stalin, also the DMK Treasurer, has been inviting leaders of political parties, including rivals such as NDA ally DMDK founder Vijaykant, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief E V K S Elangovan, for the marriage of his younger brother M K Tamilarasu's son Arulnithi, setting of speculations that DMK was eyeing a new front.
Asked about the AIADMK Government completing four years in office, Stalin took a dig at the AIADMK saying there was nothing worth to mention, as people faced only "worries" and "pains".
He reiterated DMK's demand for a CBI inquiry into alleged corruption by some ministers and other ruling AIADMK men, including former minister Agri Krishnamoorthy, arrested in connection with the "suicide" of an official in agriculture ministry.