The meeting scheduled between cine actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth of the DMDK and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for Friday has set political tongues wagging about a possible electoral alliance for the coming lok Sabha election.
Vijayakanth is aspiring for a direct alliance with the Congress as he was not inclined to move towards the Congress through a State political outfit (read DMK). There were strong indications that the DMDK would team up with the BJP for the lok Sabha elections. But after the February 2 Ulundurpet meeting, the DMDK leadership found itself in a confused state with the cadre expressing their desire to go it alone on the lok Sabha election.
Though the party insiders claim the meeting between Vijayakanth and Manmohan Singh is to submit a memorandum to the Union Government on issues like attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri lankan Navy, the power crisis in Tamil Nadu and the welfare of ethnic Tamils in Sri lanka, no one in the State is willing to believe it. “What memorandum he is going to submit to the Prime Minister and that too to a Government in the last months of it’s life,” asked a leading commentator.
Dr Tamilisai Soundarrajan, national secretary, BJP, told The Pioneer that the alliance between her party and the DMDK may not materialise. “It is highly unlikely. There is a major section in the BJP which is against any kind of alliance with the DMDK,” said Dr Soundarrajan.
It may be recalled that Panrutti Ramachandran, the former presidium chairman of the DMDK who recently quit from the primary membership of the party had told The Pioneer that the Congress leadership had approached the DMDK in 2009 itself doe a possible electoral tie up. “He had told that the Congress-DMDK alliance would the axis for other parties like the DMK to join. But we did not take up the offer as there was a strong anti- Congress feeling in the State,” Ramachandran had said.
Insiders in the DMDK said that ‘Captain’, as Vijayakanth is known among the cadre, in all probability would meet Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel during the Delhi trip. The Congress, which is bereft of any allies in the State, is in a last minute bid to rope in at least one or two political outfits before the lok sabha election.