Stirring the pot of coalition politics, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa today invoked the “daughterly” affection she had for late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her relations with Rajiv Gandhi to urge the Congress to dump the DMK and join her party-led alliance for the Lok Sabha polls.

“The public, angry at the DMK, is waiting for an opportunity to teach them a lesson,” she said, comparing the ruling party in Tamil Nadu to one caught in the “quicksand” of public ire.

In New Delhi, the Congress said its alliance with DMK was “quite strong” and it had no plan to tie up with AIADMK “as of today”. Congress media department chief M Veerappa Moily told reporters: “As of today, we have not decided (on any) front with anybody including Jayalalithaa. Our alliance with DMK is quite strong... She (Jayalalithaa) appears to have proposed on her own. I don’t think there is anything reciprocal.”

CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury said: “We are going by the understanding arrived at between our party general secretary and Jayalalithaa on an electoral understanding.” The Left parties and AIADMK stitched up a partnership recently, the anti-Congress plank being the only foundation.

Speaking at a mass-marriage ceremony organised by AIADMK cadres to celebrate her birthday, Jayalalithaa demanded the dismissal of the DMK government for its “Himalayan blunders”.

“No one can save the DMK anymore. DMK’s chapter is over. But if the Congress thinks it can lift and rescue DMK from the quicksand it has fallen, it will also get caught and sink.”

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