MDMK chief Vaiko shopping for allies in New Delhi

NEW DELHI: During the protests against the land acquisition ordinance of the NDA government in New Delhi, a surprising presence, along with anticorruption crusader Anna Hazare and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, was that of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( MDMK) chief Vaiko.

He will be camping in Delhi for the next two days for one-on-one meeting with Kejriwal, apart from attending the nuptial of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's grand-nephew.

Clearly, he is shopping for new political friends after having left the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in a huff due to what he perceived was an unseemly proximity between the Modi government and Mahinda Rajapakse's regime in Sri Lanka. "We are looking at forces opposed to the BJP , and associate with causes that directly connect with the people," he told ET. A close aide of his said that Vaiko was one of the first leaders outside north India to call and congratulate Kejriwal on becoming the Delhi chief minister.

“The situation in Tamil Nadu is more fluid than it has been anytime before in the past. With Jayalalithaa in jail and the DMK still discredited and dealing with infighting, political formations that carry a fresh message against corruption and a new kind of politics have a chance,“ said another aide of the leader.