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.

Amar Singh had also reportedly said the UNPA had no quarrel with the decision to set up a UPA-Left committee, and that the ruling combination could have its own consultative mechanism for every political party to present its views.

“This is definitely not the view of the AIADMK at all. Moreover, this cannot be termed as the considered or collective view of the UNPA. This new viewpoint was never discussed between the constituents of the UNPA, certainly not with the AIADMK,” Jayalalithaa said, making clear her rancour at not being consulted.

As far as the AIADMK was concerned, it believed that there could only be one single mechanism with regard to such a vital and crucial national issue, irrespective of how many parties are in it, whether they were allies, outside supporters of the Government or opposition parties, she said. “This is a national issue which cannot permit promotion of any sectional view and cannot be split into parts or atomised.”

She added that on Saturday, in a letter to a newspaper, she had clarified that the Left parties had not invited the AIADMK to participate in a protest rally in the Capital against India’s joint Naval exercises with other nations. Only two constituent parties of the UNPA, the Samajwadi Party and the TDP, had been invited to join the rally. These two parties had also not even bothered to inform the AIADMK about the protest demonstrations or their participation in it, Jayalalithaa said.