The rift within the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) was brought to the fore by one of its founder constituents, the AIADMK, on Sunday, which accused its senior partners of not consulting it on important issues, particularly the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The “developments” reported in the media with regard to statements of the Samajwadi Party and TDP made the AIADMK “wonder if it was still a part of the UNPA or whether the UNPA continued to exist as one entity at all,” said party general secretary J Jayalalithaa in a statement.

“Some of the reported statements attributed to the UNPA in its entirety should at best be considered the personal views of leaders of one or two of its constituent parties or as the views of those one or two parties alone. These are certainly not the views of the AIADMK,” she said.

Even during the July 19 Presidential election, MPs belonging to the AIADMK and its ally, the MDMK, cast their votes going against the UNPA decision to abstain from voting, triggering speculation about strains in the newly constituted third front. There are also reports that Jayalalithaa is unhappy with the yet unresolved issue of the alliance’s leadership.

The immediate provocation for Jayalalithaa’s strong reaction on Sunday is the reported statement of Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh that if a Joint Parliamentary Committee was not possible to discuss the nuclear deal, then the Government should consider some other mechanism to take on board the views of political parties.

“To the best of my knowledge, the UNPA has not evolved any such stand on the issue and Amar Singh’s statement must be treated as his own individual opinion or that of the Samajwadi Party. These are definitely not the views of the AIADMK,” she said.

... contd.