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.

The CPI(M) top brass had then taken a stand that it cannot join the efforts for a third front with the AIADMK in view of its earlier association with the BJP and keeping in mind its bitter experience with that party after the 2001 Assembly elections. The CPI(M)-AIADMK alliance in 2001 had fallen apart months after the polls.

Sources in the CPI(M) said talks with the DMDK for an alliance did not materialise as Vijayakant was against expanding the front. “He was not prepared to expand the front. He was targeting the 2011 Assembly elections while we are looking at next year’s general elections,” a senior party leader said.

Sources in both the parties also hope that the alliance may set the PMK to rethink its electoral strategy. Sources close to Jayalalithaa said she was confident of the PMK joining the alliance. Asked about the possibility on Friday, she simply said “wait and see”.

While the formal announcement of the alliance came on Friday, Jayalalithaa had set the ball rolling as early as August when she announced that her party was open to a tie up with the Left.