Most opposition leaders who participated in the social justice conference convened by MK Stalin, the Chief of Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK, today underscored the need for a caste census. This is the second opposition meet held by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister who is pushing for opposition unity ahead of next year’s general election.
The DMK claims that the meet is aimed at taking the social justice movement forward and denies any political angle to it. However, Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien opined that ‘We should not shy away from the fact that this is a political platform.’ He urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Jagan Mohan Reddy to join such forums, saying, ‘Two or three parties do not want to fight the BJP. It is not the time to be grey. It is the time to be black or white.’
The conference was attended by many Chief Ministers, including Ashok Gehlot, Hemant Soren, former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Akhilesh Yadav, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien, Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, and other opposition parties like Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, Telangana’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi, and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.
‘This is the first such attempt after the disqualification of Congress’s Rahul Gandhi from parliament, which is seen to have brought the opposition together,’ said a political analyst.
Recently, the DMK held a rally that brought together many opposition leaders on Chief Minister M K Stalin’s 70th birthday. The social justice meet is seen as another step towards opposition unity ahead of the 2024 elections.
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