Chennai:Slowly but surely opposition is closing ranks behind the DMK in an attempt to corner the ruling AIADMK and the Edapaddi Palaniswami government on a plethora of issues. For starters, the opposition grouping led by the DMK in which for the first time Vaiko’s MDMK is also joined will be holding a state-wide protest demanding roll back of bus fare hike.

It is for the first time that MDMK founder Vaiko visited DMK headquarters after several years after he quit the party over differences with Kalaignar. He also formed part of the all party meeting in which Congress, IUML, VCK, MDMK, CPI and CPM participated.

DMK leaders hope that the alliance of the opposition, led by the DMK, will gain enough strength to dislodge the AIADMK government, if and when elections are held. In the meanwhile, the political parties that met under the leadership of DMK working president MK Stalin on Tuesday resolved to hold joint protest programmes across the state on different issues.

The first joint action will be on the bus fare hike on February 13.

All the party leaders who attended the meeting resolved to stage joint action to force the government to roll back bus fare hike and also release all the students detained by the police. He told media persons that the government must withdraw all cases against students who were protesting the bus fare hike.

Tamil Nadu fisheries minister D Jayakumar criticised Stalin and made fun of his “dream” to dislodge the government. He will never succeed, the minister said.