Left divided over support to DMDK in by-election

TIRUCHY: The CPI on Thursday announced that it will not support any party in the Sankarankoil Assembly bypoll, clearly indicating that it was not willing to go along with the CPM’s plans of continuing ties with actor Vijaykanth’s DMDK. The CPM has already announced its support to the DMDK candidate in the Sankarankoil bypoll scheduled for March 18.However, the CPI, which discussed its strategy for the bypoll at its State committee meeting here, decided against toeing the Left ally’s line of supporting the DMDK and announced that it would not support any party. The decision was announced by the party’s State secretary D Pandian, who said the CPI “will not participate” in the bypoll.The CPI, alongwith the CPM, was part of the DMDK front in the local body elections.As the CPI joined the DMDK alliance belatedly, it got a raw deal during the seat-sharing for the local body polls and was forced to contest alone in several local bodies.Both the Left parties were with the DMDK in the AIADMK front and were ready to form a third front headed by Vijayakanth, when the AIADMK announced its candidates before the seat-sharing negotiations with the allies were completed.The CPI’s announcement on Thursday also means that it does not want to go against the AIADMK by supporting Vijayakanth’s party in the bypoll. At the moment, the party is not committed to any alliance and so it is keeping all options open for the next Lok Sabha elections.