PMK would not like to negotiate with a party, which had entered into a pre-poll alliance with the BJP. The AIADMK supremo might wait until she had sewn up an alliance with PMK, to negotiate with the BJP. She would be able to drive a hard bargain.
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EXPECTEDLY, THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) will bill and coo again in Tamilnadu. The senior Tamilnadu BJP leader and former Union Minister, Pon Radhakrishnan admitted that the chances of the AIADMK moving closer to BJP were brighter. The national level National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would be revived at the state-level too. BJP would welcome any party that accepted LK Advani as the Prime Ministerial candidate. The party had already initiated poll-related activities in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It had constituted committees at all parliamentary constituencies. On the Ram Sethu issue, the two parties saw eye to eye, pointed out Radhakrishnan. Similarly, the two parties held the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram responsible for the runaway inflation. On her part, the AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa had hosted a lunch to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in January this year, suggesting that her party’s revival of ties with BJP was possible.
The ties between the two parties soured after they lost heavily in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Unfortunately for the BJP, its attempts at forging an alliance with Vijayakanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) did not click. In fact, it is this failure that prompted the BJP to reopen its communication line with the AIADMK, according to political observers. The observers also point out it was Jayalalithaa who set the ball rolling by making overtures to the BJP. The latter had to its credit wins in several states. More importantly, it had captured power in neighbouring Karnataka. This could add value to any alliance the BJP was part of. So the AIADMK might be justifiably serious in wooing the BJP.
At the same time, the AIADMK was romancing the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) too and the PMK’s response had not been exactly disappointing. But given that PMK would not like to negotiate with a party, which had entered into a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, the AIADMK supremo might wait until she had sewn up an alliance with the PMK, to negotiate with the BJP seriously. Additionally, with the PMK firmly in her pocket, Jayalalithaa would be able to drive a hard bargain with the BJP. The growing dissatisfaction in the ties between the PMK and the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) was forcing the former to gravitate towards the AIADMK. With Karunanidhi likely to be away from active politics sooner rather than later owing to his advanced age, the DMK would not be a force to reckon with in the future. So there was no future for PMK if it allied itself with the DMK again at the next elections, even assuming that the PMK boss would treat the heir-apparent, MK Stalin, as his equal.
The growing popularity of the BJP across the country and in the south in particular, was forcing the AIADMK to woo the BJP. The BJP, although a national-level party, should necessarily ride piggy-back on a regional party, a la the Congress party, if it were to make itself conspicuous in Tamilnadu. So the dynamics seem to suggest a win-win situation for all the stakeholders, according to political observers. But would the electorate see it that way is the big question!
