DMK chief Stalin advised against losing poll momentum, got INDIA bloc meeting deferred to June 1: Sources

CHENNAI: The June 1 meeting of the INDIA bloc appears to have been timed also at the behest of Chief Minister MK Stalin, who is the president of the DMK, one of the senior partners of the Opposition INDIA bloc.

Interactions with members of the DMK inner circles revealed that CM Stalin resisted the idea of the INDIA bloc leaders meeting sometime in the middle of the 7-phase parliamentary election, which would be wrapped up on June 1, the same day the opposition leaders have now planned to get into a huddle in New Delhi.

According to informed DMK sources, CM Stalin along with a couple of other leaders was supposed to have advised the opposition leaders to meet much later during the poll season. The DMK chief was said to have insisted that the alliance must capitalise on the momentum shifting in its favour from the second phase of the polls. The DMK chief was for parties focussing on poll work in their respective turfs instead of the converging at the national capital, more so when the momentum seemingly shifted in their favour.

DMK sources also revealed to DT Next that the opposition leaders considered deferring the meeting from scheduled June 1 in the event of Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal managing to secure bail in the Delhi liquor policy case. A highly placed DMK leader said that the meeting could be moved to June 2 should the court award bail to him in the interim. With the Supreme Court refusing urgent hearing of the bail plea, the June 1 meeting, would take place without West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee (she abstained from the meeting due to polls in the state then and the cyclone threat looming large over Bengal) was most unlikely to be deferred as of now.