Though the Election Commission of India has come out with the details of the schedule for Tamil Nadu Assembly election, the two prominent parties, the DMDK and the BJP, are yet to finalise their plan of action. The DMDK leader Vijayakanth, while addressing a public meeting at Rishivandhyam in Villupuram district late Thursday night said he has not finalised alliance with any parties. This came amidst reports that the DMDK has entered into an agreement with the DMK and the latter has allocated 59 seats for Vijayakanth’s party.
Rumour mills were in full swing on Thursday following the “botched up” mission of Union Minister Prakash Javadekar to Chennai. While the State BJP leaders blamed each other privately for Javadekar’s failure to get an appointment with Vijayakanth, a prominent leader of the PMK pointed out that the saffron party leadership alone is responsible for the present state of affairs.
“An important member of the Union Cabinet comes to Chennai and he fails to get an appointment with the chief of a party, which failed to win even a single lok Sabha seat despite contesting the maximum number of seats. This is really sad,” said K Balu, PMK leader to Anbumani Ramadoss, the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate.
Tamilissai Soundararajan, a gynecologist turned politician who is the president of the Tamil Nadu BJP is still hopeful of ensuring the smooth delivery of an alliance with the DMDK. “We are hopeful of clinching a deal with the DMDK. Several rounds of unofficial talks have taken place and the discussions are still on,” she told reporters at the State party head quarters.
Balu, the PMK leader, said his party had extended an invitation to the BJP in February 2015 itself and this was repeated many times. “But they were obsessed with Vijayakanth. The DMDK leader was in discussion with all political outfits in Tamil Nadu for the best deal, while we did not make this a commercial venture,” said Balu.
He also pointed out that the PMK had many ideological similarities with the BJP and they should have reciprocated to the invitations from the PMK long back. Options for the BJP are decreasing by the hour following the reports about the DMK-DMDK deal.
The prospects of the AIADMK forging an alliance with the BJP are bleak as Jayalalithaa is not interested in antagonising the Christian and Muslim voters.
Many political commentators based in Tamil Nadu are of the view that the PMK is the ideal option for the BJP.