Though the AIADMK and the DMK have been traditional rivals in Tamil Nadu politics since 1972, it is the newly-formed five-party People’s Welfare Front (PWF) which is firing on all cylinders against the DMK this time while the AIADMK has remained mum.
The ire, with which Vaiko, the convenor of the PWF attacks the DMK’s first family, has put Karunanidhi and Stalin on the defensive. “The PWF looks more like mercenaries of the AIADMK,” commented a veteran political commentator. Vaiko’s walking out of a “live” TV interview when the anchor person asked him whether the PWF was the B team of the AIADMK, substantiates the doubt about the front.
The DMK has served two legal notices on Vaiko for his charges that the Dravidian major had offered the DMDK Rs500 crore and 80 Assembly seats to rope in Vijayakant as an ally and that MK Stalin was the brain behind the 2G Spectrum. An adamant Vaiko said he would come with more revelations in days to come.
The PWF-DMK war of words took an interesting turn with Vaiko, a sworn Dravidian for whom anything Aryan is an anathema, describing his front as the Pandava Ani (Pandava Army) of the Mahabharatha, described by the Dravidians as an Aryan epic. “Vijayakanth is our Yudhishthir while I am the Arjun and Thol Thirumavalavan is Bheema, “ said Vaiko. G Ramakrishnan of the CPI(M) has been portrayed as Nakula while R Mutharasan (CPI) is Sahadeva.
Not to be left behind, Premalatha, the brain and power behind Vijayakant, went one step further and described her husband as “gnanapazham” (divine fruit) which has fallen into the honey (PWF). “We are the Pandavar Ani and we have never been defeated,” thundered Premalatha while addressing a public meeting at Madurai late Sunday evening.
Though Vaiko is silent about who the Kauravas are in this modern day Mahabharat battle, it is clear that he is depicting Karunanidhi and his party as the forces of evil. The DMK chief by his age, stature and physique suits the bill of Dhritharashtra while M K Stalin is the elder Kuru, Duryodhana.
What has baffled Tamil Nadu voters is the stoic silence shown by the AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa in this war of statements. She is busy finalising the list of candidates and could have reserved all the energy for the arduous election campaign.
What Tamil Nadu voters are waiting anxiously for is the stance of Vijayakant vis-a-vis the BJP. The husband-wife team which controls the DMDK has not uttered a single word against the BJP or Prime Minister Narendra Modi till Monday evening. But once the battle gains momentum and the Captain (as Vijayakant is addressed by the cadre) joins the other leaders of the alliance for joint campaigning, will he be able to continue his silence about Modi and BJP is the question being asked across Tamil Nadu.