After maintaining silence over the past few months when its member,A Raja,was raided,sacked as minister,and arrested the DMK finally hit back on Saturday to pull out its members from the Union Cabinet,a move that puts the ball in the Congresss court to decide on the future of the alliance. The two parties were involved in a seven-year-long alliance that resulted in two significant victories in successive general elections,an Assembly poll and a local body election. But the second general election victory that put the Congress on a firmer ground changed the nature of the relationship. The first indication of this came hours after the announcement of Lok Sabha results in 2009,when it was known that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not willing to include DMK members T R Baalu and A Raja,who were caught in allegations of corruption during UPA I. Even M Karunanidhi,the DMK chief who had in the past arm-twisted the ally,had to agree to omit Baalu,one of the top leaders of the party. The real trouble came with the release or rather leaking of the CAG report that put an astronomical figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore as the loss to the exchequer due to the 2G spectrum scam. This led to incessant reporting by the media that put the DMK on the backfoot. Media reports from Delhi even suggested that Karunanidhis daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi could be summoned by the CBI in connection with the scam,a taint that the senior leader would not want his family to carry. Even as the Congress was playing hard ball in terms of their demand about the number of seats and that too of their choice,the DMK leadership seems to have foreseen the scenario and made some deft political moves in the background to face any eventuality in this case,a life without Congress support. While the Congress stood its ground and raised it to a level where the DMK could not afford to concede any further,Karunanidhi formed a ring around the party with PMK,VCK,KMK and IUML as allies,finishing negotiations with considerable ease. These alliances have put his party on a stronger wicket in north Tamil Nadu where the PMK and VCK are strong,and in the west where along with KMK it now has a realistic chance to make some inroads. The timing of the snapping is crucial,said observers,pointing out that actor-politician Vijayakants DMDK has signed a deal with Jayalalithaas AIADMK only on Friday. Also,now that its potential allies have already signed electoral deals,the chances of Congress leading a third front looks bleak.
