The CPI(M) and the AIADMK decided on Friday to form an alliance in Tamil Nadu for the coming Lok Sabha elections, strengthening the non-Congress, non-BJP platform forged by the Left parties after its split with the UPA.

The decision to resume their electoral ties after a gap of seven years was jointly announced in Chennai by AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa and CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat after an hour-long meeting. It will bring together four parties, CPI(M), CPI, AIADMK and Vaiko’s MDMK, to take on the Congress-DMK combine. The decision, seen as an electoral move, was duly endorsed by the state committee. However, details of the state sharing have not been worked out yet.

While the CPI had last month announced its decision to go with the AIADMK, the CPI(M) had been dithering all along after a section of its state unit expressed reservations over a tie-up with Jayalalithaa given her earlier flirtations with the BJP and the difference of viewpoints on several issues. They had favoured an alliance with Vijayakant’s DMDK.

Sources in the CPI(M), however, refused to hazard a guess about the AIADMK’s political strategy post-Lok Sabha elections. “We don’t know what she will do after polls. For the time being, we are together,” a senior leader said.

The CPI(M) decision to ally with Jayalalithaa is seen as a significant turnaround as it was the AIADMK’s presence in the UNPA that deterred the Left party from having a truck with the grouping when it was formed last year.

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