Allies desert north and south,Cong shrugs it off

There was more bad news for the Congress — actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth also announced that the DMDK would go it alone in the polls,rejecting overtures of the ruling combine in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre.

SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav,RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav and LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan announced a “secular alliance” to jointly contest all 120 seats Lok Sabha in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. SP general secretary Amar Singh said leaders of the three parties were likely to formally announce this in New Delhi on March 30.

The Congress tried to put up a brave front saying that the PMK — which had six MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha — and allies like Lalu and Paswan would return after elections because “the Congress is the only secular alternative”.

Said Union Minister Kapil Sibal: “When a river flows,lots of streams go in different directions but join the river again. They will join us after elections.”

Sibal argued that every regional party jostled for space and wanted to throw out the national party (in the state). A national party,on the other hand,did not want to concede space to regional parties at the national level. “This has been there in every election and will continue to be so,” said Sibal.

The PMK,which has been promised seven Lok Sabha seats and a Rajya Sabha nomination by the AIADMK,took the plunge after members of its general council overwhelmingly voted for changing sides in a “referendum”. Of the 2,580 members who voted,2,453 favoured tying up with AIADMK while those in favour of the DMK were an academic 117. Ten were in favour of the PMK’s stated goal of coming to power on its own. “Cadres’ decision is the leadership’s decision,” said PMK founder S Ramadoss,adding that he had expected such an outcome. Justifying this,he recalled incidents when he said he and his party were “humiliated” by the DMK. “I have told them again and again,we didn’t go to Poes Garden (AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa’s residence) on our own,you forced us to go,” said Ramadoss.

“Before 2004 elections,DMK president M Karunanidhi said the alliance will win 34 out of the 40 seats,implying that all six seats we contested will be lost. But we won. In the Assembly elections two years later,we contested 31 seats,won 18. In the rest 13,they worked to defeat us,” said Ramadoss.

The AIADMK has offered seven Lok Sabha seats to PMK and an assurance to support its candidate for the next Rajya Sabha vacancy: the present member is Union Health Minister and Ramadoss’s son Anbumani Ramadoss.

As for DMDK founder Vijayakanth,he declared in Kanyakumari that he did not launch his party to bargain for “three four seats”. Like in the Assembly and local body elections in 2006,his party will contest alone this time too,its debut Lok Sabha election.

Former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that PMK’s decision would not affect the DMK’s prospects adding that the DMK was glad about “losing extra baggage”. Party spokesperson TKS Elangovan had a more measured response that poll outcome was also dependent on the performance of the government and not just arithmetic of voteshare. UPA’s 40-0 victory,a talking point over the last five years,is now a part of history,as four of its allies have crossed over to the AIADMK-led camp.

MDMK leader Vaiko was the first to leave just before the 2006 Assembly election while CPM and CPI left after the nuclear deal trust vote. Each brought two MPs each to the AIADMK camp. Now with the six-member PMK out of the alliance,the UPA is reduced to Congress (10) and DMK (16). At today’s meeting,however,both Ramadoss and his son spoke with overt warmth about their “rapport” with the Prime Minister and Congress president.