Reacting sharply, AIADMK headquarter secretary and former minister A Sengottaiyan asked the comrades to address their own failures, including routs in party bastions, Bengal and Kerala. Terming CPM statement as ‘politically uncultured’, he wondered whether his party had any role to play in CPM’s failure in the majority of seats outside Tamil Nadu. “The CPM did not win a single seat in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar. They won only 16 out of the 81 contested nationally, four out of 14 in Kerala and nine out of 32 contested in West Bengal,” the statement quoted Sengottaiyan.

Contesting three seats in Tamil Nadu, the CPM had won only one — Coimbatore — that too aided by the presence of Independents. AIADMK, much touted to become the main cog of the new government, won nine out of the 23 it contested. The ‘alliance’ has since gone back to ‘issue-based partnership’.

The CPM and the AIADMK were never inherent partners due to their divergent stands on workers’ rights and religious matters. However, ahead of Lok Sabha election, the Left party had joined hands with AIADMK to face the Congress, its primary rival that was in alliance with the DMK.

Though this was a decision made out of regional compulsions, the non-commitment on AIADMK’s part about its continuation in the alliance was a drawback for the Front during election. The CPI state unit, on the other hand, shares a close relation with the AIADMK, and has remained silent.