When chief minister M. Karunanidhi issued a statement past Friday midnight accusing the Congress of making “unfair and unreasonable” demands in seat-sharing talks, the mood in his party was already crystallising towards “life without Congress”. Outside the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, cadres gathered through Saturday shouting slogans against the Congress and accusing Union minister P. Chidambaram of “backstabbing” as word went round that he was the architect of the “mischief”.
While the official Congress response was subdued and hinted at rapprochement, party sources here pointed out that a patch-up will be difficult after such rancour. “There will be no coordination between the rank and file and no trust between the leaders of the two parties. Besides, the voter will not trust the alliance anymore,” said a Congress senior, who was in the five-member team that negotiated with the DMK.
Another Congress functionary said “quiet” consultations were going for some time with actor-politician Vijayakanth. “The DMDK chief delayed meeting Jayalalithaa for over two weeks only because we were in touch. And when he finally did meet her on Friday, we were kept in the loop,” said a source. He added that there were “some exploratory moves” by the Chidambaram camp towards establishing contact with Ms Jayalalithaa and “anything is possible now”.
True, the DMK has many friends within the Tamil Nadu Congress camp, such as senior legislator Peter Alphonse.
“Jayalalithaa has plenty of seats in her bag after allotting 41 to Vijayakanth. She could offer about 50 for the Congress and the latter, too, might accept that because of better winning chances,” said a senior Congress legislator.
Former Union minister E.V.K.S. Elangovan had no problems about being named when he told this newspaper: “Congressmen in Tamil Nadu are now happy at being relieved from the clutches of this evil force called the DMK. We will do well in the election in any other company.”