Chennai: In a politically significant development in the post Rahul Gandhi disqualification period, DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday managed to bring on board the Trinamool Congress, AAP, Bharati Rashtriya Samiti and the NCP along with the Congress, Left, RJD, SP and National Conference among other parties, on a common platform.
Stalin’s ambitious Congress-inclusive national coalition
It remains to be seen if this would eventually pave way for Stalin’s ambitious Congress-inclusive national coalition to take on the BJP-led NDA in next year’s Lok Sabha polls but nonetheless, he has succeeded in getting political birds of different feathers to flock together for the cause of social justice. Leaders of the NC, SP and RJD had last month shared a platform with Stalin in Chennai on his birthday but subsequently, it is yet to materialise into a national coalition.
At the first National Conference of All India Federation for Social Justice organised by the DMK on a virtual mode, leaders from different parts of the country agreed to bat for social justice. In fact, Derek O Brien of the Trinamool Congress said, the parties should not shy away from the fact that this is a political platform. He went on to urge the Biju Janata Dal leader and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen and YSR Congress leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy to join in on such platforms in the future. “Two or three parties do not want to fight the BJP. It is not the time to be grey. It is the time to be black or white. We have a task. I appeal to BJD that they should come together..Naveen Patnaik got to be here. Also, the YSR Congress Party,” he said.
At the meeting the Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Jharkand - Ashok Gehlot and Hemant Soren, and former J&K Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and ex-UP CM Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and CPI’s D Raja participated on hybrid mode.
At the meeting, Stalin strongly opposed the 10 per cent quota brought in by the Narendra Modi Government to for the economically weaker sections among the open competition category. He said economic status is not permanent and as such cannot be a criterial for providing reservation. Instead reservation should remain on the basis of social status.
