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DMK, TMC may part ways

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its ally, the Tamil Maanila Congress, are now locked in combat with the possibility of parting of ways appearing imminent.

DMK president and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has said that his party would not stand in the way of the TMC parting company with it, if it so desired.

The DMK and the TMC alliance formed days before the 1996 assembly and Lok Sabha elections, romped home with a resounding victory in those polls. But they started sparring first on the DMK's suspected role in sabotaging TMC leader G K Moopanar's chances of becoming prime minister after H D Deve Gowda's resignation and later on popular issues.

They, however, buried the hatchet and fought the last general election together, but with a poor showing.

Being out of office at the Centre and remaining an Opposition party in the state assembly, and with the Congress) making forays into its camps, the TMC has started harping on the slogan "Kamaraj rule by 2001". The TMC has been charging that ever since the beginning of Dravidian rule in Tamil Nadu from 1967 corruption was eating into its body politic.

This has infuriated the DMK, the senior partner in the alliance, and a senior party leader writing in the party newsaper Murasoli under the pseudonym 'Indrajith' had termed the Congress as synonymous with corruption.

Senior TMC leaders say the party was prepared to face any eventuality including snapping of ties with the DMK and is going ahead with its state-wide month-long mass contact programme from September 11, the birth centenary of nationalist poet Subramania Bharati.

The party has already held in recent weeks, four major meetings at Tirunelveli, Karur, Pondicherry and Kancheepuram where middle-level leadedrs had charged the Dravidian parties with being corrupt. "Restoring Kamaraj rule" was a constant refrain at all these meetings.

The people have a right to throw out of office a corrupt party, Moopanar was quoted as saying at a meeting. ''The TMC should be seen as an opposition party and not as an enemy party,'' he had added.

Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly S Balakrishnan had added fuel to fire a few days ago when he accused the DMK of being jealous of the TMC's growth. This invited instantaneous ridicule from a senior DMK leader who quoted Moopanar himself as reminding TMC cadres that the party did not even have polling agents for the local body polls. Such lose talks should be curbed, the DMK leader said.

Claiming that the DMK was acting in an authoritarian manner, the TMC alleged that anyone other than a DMK member who had wanted to contest the recently held election to the co-operative societies and banks in the state was chased away. This has been refuted by the DMK leadership.

The TMC was apparently in a dilemma with a section of the party expressing their desire to return to the Congress and party president Sonia Gandhi herself cold-shouldering Moopanar's offer of coordination. The appointment of Tindivanam K Ramamurthy, a known critic of Moopanar as TN Congress unit chief, has complicated the issue for the TMC.

The TMC is faced with other dilemmas too.

While an influential section in the party is opposed to its merger with the Congress, some middle-level leaders, apprehensive of not being in power in the immediate future, nourish hope of joining the DMK. This has aggravated the tension between the two, say analysts.

TMC spokesman B Gnanadesikan explained that it was natural for any party to aspire to capture power. Should the TMC be expected to play second fiddle to the DMK always, he asked.

Senior DMK leaders, however, said that the situation had not reached a point of no return. It was similar to the one that prevailed prior to the last general election, they added.

Stating that the party had already created an identify of its own, TMC leaders said they would now build on it.

Moopanar himself is being projected as the heir to the Kamaraj legacy.

Whether the cold war would go on or a thaw would emerge depends on developments at the national scene, analysts pointed out.

The political scenario could drastically change in the event of the AIADMK withdrawing support to the BJP-led government at the Centre and the DMK extending outside support like the TDP.

It is, however, too early to speculate on those lines now, a senior DMK leader said.

Will the TMC be forced to join the Congress or have second thoughts in case that party aligned with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham? These questions have no immediate answers, at least for the time being.

UNI

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