Chennai, Apr 20 (PTI) CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin here on Sunday and congratulated him on the Supreme Court verdict over Governors withholding assent to legislative bills.

“Comrade M A Baby, the newly elected General Secretary of CPI-M called on me today and congratulated for two landmark developments- the Supreme Court’s historic verdict that exposed the limits of Governor’s office and our formation of high level committee for State Autonomy,” the chief minister said in a social media post.

“These are not isolated victories. They are the living expression of the federal ideals we jointly championed at the CPI M 24th Party Congress in Madurai – a vision where the Constitution prevails, and the will of elected governments cannot be obstructed by unelected authority,” he said.

“Our bond (with CPIM) stays firm, our alliance grows stronger,” Stalin said.

Later, talking to reporters, Baby said, “We met for around 15-20 minutes. It was a pure courtesy call (his meeting with the chief minister). In Madurai, we had the 24th Party Congress and it was conducted very successfully. I thank the Tamil Nadu CM for his support to make it a grand success.” “Now, the state is moving towards an assembly election within almost 12 months. So, we have to bring together the people of Tamil Nadu under the leadership of democratic, secular and progressive forces. We congratulated Stalin and DMK for having contributed immensely in strongly building this political arrangement in Tamil Nadu where non communal forces can work together,” he said.

As a result of this, the communal forces are unable to make any significant headway in TN, he added.

“We are witnessing systematic attacks on secularism and on minority rights in our country by the Narendra Modi government on the basis of the directions given by the RSS,” he said.

At the top level, some opportunistic alliance can be arrived at between BJP and the AIADMK. But as a result of that, more and more people who have been following these parties would join the progressive, democratic, secular alliance that is being formed with DMK and various other political parties, he said. “This is our hope,” he added. PTI VIJ VIJ KH