Civic election: PWF at crossroads

With the local body polls looming large, no visible poll activity is happening in the PWF camp. Much to their chagrin, even the size of the alliance is thinning. After Vasan’s TMC, which quit the alliance, now Vijayakant’s DMDK too has drifted away. The DMDK unilaterally invited applications from party aspirants and demonstrated its intention to dissociate from the front. The four parties are reluctantly exploring their limited options ahead of the civic polls. 

CPI state secretary R Mutharasan said, “We only had a seat sharing agreement with DMDK for the Assembly election. It is for the DMDK to decide now,” he told DTNext . The CPI state secretary drew a distinction between civic and Assembly elections and said, “In civic polls, people vote for parties that connect with them locally. Even independents win. We are connected to the people.”

One cannot ignore the disinterest of PWF cadres. However, cadres fast fading enthusiasm does not deter PWF leaders who had discussed local body polls at state level twice thus far. 

Significantly, CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan said, “This is not new to us. Even in 2006 and 2011, we faced the local body polls alone despite being with them (Dravidian parties) for the Assembly elections.”