He added that the party's decision had already been communicated to Maran. He (Karunanidhi) could not announce the decision here now due to certain circumstances. However, he hinted that an inference could be made out from his statement that the DMK would not back any front in which the AIADMK was present.

The CM, who was talking to mediapersons at the Secretariat, said chances were there for the Vajpayee Government surviving the confidence motion. Any elected Government should complete its full term of five years, he said. To a question, he said that the AP CM and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu contacted him over the telephone and sought the DMK'ssupport to the BJP Government.

Regarding AIADMK leader Jayalalitha's decision to join hands with the AICC president Sonia Gandhi, he said he would not be surprised if Gandhi, who had only a couple of years of experience in politics, gets deceived. Strongly attacking the Left parties, he said their decision to hold talks with Jayalalitha without consulting the DMK and TMC on the formation of the next Central Government, had caused damage to the Third Front, even at the formative stage. He recalled that Vajpayee, whose political experience is almost equivalent to Karunanidhi himself had been fooled by Jayalalitha.

Strongly attacking the Left parties, he said their decision to hold talks with Jayalalitha without consulting the DMK and TMC on the formation of the next Government at the Centre, had caused damage to the Third Front, even at the formative stage. It was too late to hold discussions with them, even if they held out promises that the DMK Government would not be dismissed and its smooth functioningnot affected.

In the past one year, the parties had passed time by merely talking about the formation of the Third Front, without taking any concrete steps. The Third Front functioned only in illusion. Even senior CPM leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had mentioned two days ago that the Third Front, consisting of DMK and TMC and minus AIADMK, was in existence. This was reiterated by CPM general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. But within two days they started holding talks with Jayalalitha and the repercussions of this decision on DMK's relations with those parties in Tamil Nadu, would be known in the days to come.

Earlier, in a statement, the Chief Minister cautioned the leaders of political parties to be wary of Jayalalitha's tactics and not get caught in the web spread through her false promises.