The defeat of the DMK is the sole objective of the AIADMK AMMK-DMDK alliance, says Dhinakaran

AMMK and DMDK have come together to ensure DMK’s defeat, an “evil force,” and AIADMK, “a force of betrayal”, AMMK Secretary General TTV Dhinakaran reiterated on Wednesday.

“This is our only objective,” the AMMK leader said after calling DMDK founder Vijayakanth and treasurer Premlata Vijayakanth at DMDK headquarters in Chennai.

Rejecting the suggestion that the coalition was acted in a hurry, Mr. Dhinakaran claimed that the talks took place for 10–15 days. There were “legitimate issues” in the identification and allocation of 60 constituencies. This was a “give and take” policy adopted by activists and district-level functionaries of the two parties that facilitated the tie-up. He gave the example of Vriddhachalam constituency, which the DMDK sought for Mrs. Vijayakanth. He said, ‘When I made my party’s zonal in-charge aware of this, he took the consent of my party’s candidate in no time. With a view to include DMDK in our front, 42 candidates from my party have come forward to voluntarily withdraw their candidature, ”the AMMK leader explained.

Asked why he did not choose to contest in the RK Nagar assembly constituency from where he was elected in the by-election in December 2017, Mr. Dhinakaran claimed that he wanted to contest from there, but his party officials Advised him to avoid it, as he decided to contest from Kovilpatti in the southern region.

The AMMK leader termed many of the electoral assurances of DMK and AIADMK as “empty promises”.