With just 18 months left for the next general elections, the Congress and the DMK are no longer the best of allies as both are unhappy with each other.
Sources in both the parties maintain that this could even be the beginning of unravelling of ties between the two parties.
If the Congress is upset with the DMK for having deputed party heir apparent M.K. Stalin to the United Nations for submitting the Teso resolution of the party thereby straining relations with Sri Lanka, the DMK is fuming at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s adviser T.K.A. Nair calling on Ms Jayalalithaa ostensibly to discuss development-related issues.
M.K. Stalin and DMK’s floor leader in the Lok Sabha T.R. Baalu handed over the Teso resolution to the United Nations deputy general secretary Jan Eliasson on November 1 and sought to prevail on him the need for UN to intervene in Sri Lanka to redress the problems faced by Sri Lankan Tamils in the northeast of the island nation.
This act of the DMK was much against the wish of the Congress-led UPA government, which seeks to improve its relations with Colombo in the aftermath of the civil war there, according to Congress sources.
In addition, the grand old party is not amused by the demand of its Dravidian ally that India stop training Sri Lankan military personnel in the country, sources added.