M Karunanidhi (93), the DMK chief, is staging a political drama in Tamil Nadu in his last-ditch effort to come back to power in the elections to be held to the Assembly anytime now, according to his own associates.
It now has become clear that the statement by TKS Elangovan, spokesman of the DMK, who is a long-time loyalist of the Karunanidhi family, that the party would contest 170 seats in the Assembly election and leave only 64 seats to the allies, has been made with the blessings of the DMK chief to test the waters.
The high decibel reactions from some of the prospective allies of the DMK, which include the Congress, made Karunanidhi to disavow the party spokesman’s statement. Karunanidhi wrote a detailed editorial in Murasoli, the DMK mouthpiece which is edited, printed and published by the DMK president himself. He also made Elangovan to atone for the “jumping the line” by issuing a statement through the media claiming that “the statement was made without the concurrence of Kalaignar” (as Karunanidhi is addressed by his followers).
“Those who are familiar with Elangovan know well that he would not issue such a statement without the knowledge of Karunanidhi or Stalin. That is why he has been made the party spokesman, an important designation in the DMK,” said a political commentator who is a long-time associate of Karunanidhi. “He scored a self-goal through his actions,” said the commentator.
He pointed out that Karunanidhi does not like the idea of sharing of power with other parties in the State. “Even when the DMK won only 96 seats in the 2006 Assembly elections, Karunanidhi did not share power though he survived the five-year tenure with the support of parties like the Congress and the PMK. The DMK chief wanted to test waters this time with most of the parties making it known in advance that they want to be coalition partners in the Government,” said the commentator who did not want his name to be quoted for obvious reasons.
The Congress, VCK (Dalit outfit led by Thirumavalavan), MMK (an Islamic outfit) and a number of fringe parties have made it clear to the DMK chief that their support should not be taken for granted without an agreement on sharing of power.
The CPI(M), the CPI, MDMK, VCK and MMK has formed an alliance in the name of Joint Movement for People’s Welfare and has issued many statements indirectly directed at Karunanidhi to increase their bargaining power. “We are trying to form a non-DMK and non-AIADMK Government in Tamil Nadu,” said Vaiko, the leader of the MDMK.
The CPI(M) secretary G Ramakrishnan said the front would not have any alliance with parties like the AIADMK, the DMK, the BJP and the Congress.
Karunaidhi is hopeful of forging an alliance with the Congress as well as the lefts. Since he has good personal equations with Sitaram Yechury, the CPI(M) general secretary, he is confident that the lefts would join him in the run-up to the elections.
What has disturbed Karunanidhi is Saturday’s meeting between BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and the DMDK chief Vijayakanth whom Karunanidhi is tring to rope in as his alliance partner. The DMK president is worried whether Swamy has an ace up his sleeve and dampen the prospects of a DMK-DMDK alliance.