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Sonia's tango with Jaya won't be graceful

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Despite senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar's confidence that his party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam would 'work together', hurdles remain.

These relate to both the concept and content of the proposed 'working together'. For one, the state Congress is opposed to the idea, though it will ultimately accept the "high command's decision".

"We had extensive discussions on the current political situation in Tamil Nadu," Pawar had said after his 150-minute luncheon with AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha.

Sources close to the Congress leader said he had reiterated the party's position favouring a single-party government if it won the poll. He cited the examples of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the AIADMK, among others, which had supported majority Congress governments at the Centre from outside.

The AIADMK too has reservations about the 'working together'. While the party has few options, given that the Bharatiya Janata Party doors are already closed, it would still like to have its say. Tamil Nadu has 40 seats, including Pondicherry, and the AIADMK would accept a 50:50 seat-sharing arrangement if the Congress conceded a coalition government and brought in the TMC. The sharing would shrink if the TMC could not be roped in, standing closer to single digit if there was only electoral adjustments, not a coalition.

It's this message that Pawar is believed to be taking back to party chief Sonia Gandhi and other colleagues. As he pointed out, there was unanimity in the Congress Working Committee on a tie-up with the AIADMK, and he is among the few party leaders with a good personal rapport with Jayalalitha.

"I will come again next week to discuss the modalities and seat-sharing," he told newsmen, indicating that Wednesday's meeting covered only joint campaign plans, not joint governance.

Pawar did not believe that there was an 'anti-Jayalalitha wave' sweeping the state. "Working together, we can convert it into a pro-wave," he said.

The Congress, as in the past, seems to have great faith in its 'stability card.' This wave, it hopes, will sweep away the 'anti-Jayalalitha wave' that favours "national parties and national issues for national elections."

The Congress also seems to have been emboldened by the AIADMK's resurgence in the last Lok Sabha poll after its debacle when Jayalalitha even lost her assembly seat. "If the AIADMK tying up with the BJP on a national plank could wash away its sins, so can it do now, by joining forces with the Congress on its national plank. The electoral worst of the AIADMK is past us, and we can help each other win a few, if not more, seats," Pawar said.

While the Congress prescription is based on the traditional mind-set of the Delhi politician, that you need one of the Dravidian majors to make electoral sense in Tamil Nadu, its despatching Sharad Pawar double-quick reportedly is due to a different reason. Pawar said the Congress had no reservations to Jayalalitha's suggestion that the AIADMK align with the Left as well. But indications are that the Left wanted Jayalalitha to keep the Congress out, so that an emerging third front would have a bargaining chip in a 'hung Parliament'.

Pawar was evasive about the TMC. "We welcome all former Congressmen," he said, indicating thus that he favoured a merger, not an alliance.

TMC founder G K Moopanar, for his part, said that the last word on the Congress-AIADMK alliance had to come from Sonia Gandhi. He would disclose his strategy only after that.

Even as Pawar was meeting Jayalalitha, the state Congress was holding a scheduled meeting of its executive not very far away, to discuss the party's election strategy. Speaker after speaker is believed to have opposed any tie-up with the AIADMK. In private, some of them referred to the impending Supreme Court verdict in the 'special courts case' involving Jayalalitha and her erstwhile colleagues.

"An unfavourable verdict could speed up at least the Tansi case in the trial court, which should not take more than a month or so to reach judgment," says a Congress lawyer-politician. "That can have an adverse impact on any alliance involving the AIADMK.

"Maybe corruption is one issue that people may not be concerned any more about. But Jayalalitha is another issue, and corruption is only a part of it," he added.

But Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Tindivanam K Ramamurthy later said any alliance the high command forges with other parties in Tamil Nadu would be acceptable to the state unit.

Addressing a press conference in Madras, he said the party high command had kept the state unit informed about the negotiations Pawar had had with Jayalalitha.

He parried a question whether he had recommended an alliance with the AIADMK, saying he would not like to reveal inner-party discussions.

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