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The birthday celebrations of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo M K Stalin on Wednesday saw calls for opposition unity, with regional parties Samajwadi Party and National Conference urging him to take a larger role in Delhi ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was also present at the event, stressed that the primary objective of the opposition should be to put up a united fight against "divisive forces" and the question was not of who would be the PM candidate of such a bloc.
Stalin threw his weight behind the Congress to ensure opposition victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, saying post-poll alliances and arguments by some favouring a front without the grand old party should be rejected as they are not workable.
At the event to mark the DMK leader's 70th birthday in Chennai, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and National Conference supremo Farooq Abdullah urged him to come to the national political scene by playing a bigger role.
Abdullah said the first priority for the opposition was to win the 2024 polls and that "let us forget who is going to become the prime minister."
Kharge then told the gathering, "All like minded-opposition parties must come together in this fight against divisive forces. That is our desire. I never said who will lead, who will become the prime minister. Farooq Saab, I am telling you -- we are not telling who will lead or who is not going to lead; that is not the question. We want to fight together unitedly. That is our desire."
"That is why we have sacrificed many times in the name of secularism, in the name of liberty, in the name of freedom of expression. That we have done and showed, and we have also lost many times," he added.
Batting for a spirit of unity among opposition parties, the Dravidian party chief said it would bring victory in the general elections.
"If national politics is decided based on state-based political differences, the loss is for us," he said, a reference to state-specific political realities that hindered bringing like-minded parties together to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"If we (the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance) have won all elections in Tamil Nadu during the past four years, the reason is unity," Stalin said.
"Political parties should rise above differences and stand together as a unified force to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. Talks of a third front are pointless. I humbly request all the political parties opposed to the BJP to understand this simple electoral arithmetic and stand united," he said.
He urged his party's cadre to work for the victory of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance in all the 40 seats, 39 in Tamil Nadu and one in neighbouring Puducherry, in the 2024 polls.
He conveyed to Kharge, in his address, that a resolution passed at the recent Congress plenary demonstrating the party's willingness to work with all like-minded parties was the "ideal birthday present" to him.
In the plenary on Saturday, the Congress had said it was willing to forge a viable alternative by aligning with like-minded parties and regional outfits that agree with its ideology to get rid of the "anti-people and undemocratic" BJP government in the general elections.
Stalin said arguments put forth by "some" favouring a non-Congress front should be rejected and a post-poll alliance for the parliamentary election is not practical.
The K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi is pitted against the Congress and the BJP in Telangana. In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is fighting both the Left and the BJP.
"Political parties should rise above differences and stand together as a unified force to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. Talks of a third front are pointless. I humbly request all the political parties opposed to the BJP to understand this simple electoral arithmetic and stand united," the Dravidian party chief said.
Asked about the chances of Stalin becoming the prime minister, Abdullah told reporters: "Why not? Why can't he become the prime minister?"
To a question on opposition unity, he said Stalin and the DMK have done very well. When the nation's diversity is protected, then unity is guarded, he said. Tamil Nadu's ruling party has done well on nurturing Opposition and national unity, Abdullah added.
Addressing a mega public meeting organised by the DMK to celebrate the party chief's birthday, Abdullah said: "Stalin, it is time to move on. Come to the national scene. Come to the nation and build the nation as you have built this state. Nation needs people who can work together and to Khargeji also I will say, let us forget who is going to become the prime minister. Let us first win the election (2024 Lok Sabha polls), then think who is going to become the prime minister."
It is not the prime minister that matters but it is the nation that matters and if the country is saved, then its 140 crore people are protected, the senior political leader said. All the opposition leaders need to work together and that is the need of the hour, he said.
"Wake up, unite," he said and work for the nation where all people could live in peace with honour and dignity. Peace could emerge only when people are happy. Citing factors like unemployment and price rise, he said in such a scenario the nation cannot be strong.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav praised the DMK president and expressed confidence that he will rise to national prominence.
Akhilesh Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said Stalin has done "exemplary work" for Tamil Nadu's development as its chief minister. He was speaking at the DMK event organised to mark Stalin's birthday.
"I wish him great health and immense drive to advance his unique pursuit of social justice and equality-oriented good governance. I am certain that he will rise to great political heights and national prominence," Akhilesh Yadav added.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said, "We know strong and effective leadership can come only from conviction from values of social justice."
"This is also an occasion to declare that it is a meeting ground of parties with social justice background," he said.
"The politics of hollow supremacy can be stopped only by the collective will of the people of India. Your focus on social justice and opposition to caste discrimination has resonated with the voters of in your state. Parties in north India should learn and re-learn this continuously and prioritise issues related to social justice and the marginalised communities," Tejashwi Yadav added.
He alleged the "approach" of the Union government is "fundamentally anti-social justice." "We cannot have a vision of India which looks at marginalised people with contempt..." he said.