Cornered, DMK is looking for options to wriggle out of the situation at a meeting of the party’s top brass being held in Chennai on Friday. But these developments have not worried the ruling coalition as the government is confident
that the DMK is not in a position to retaliate and thereby its decision would not have any bearing on the Centre.The current mood in the Centre is not to placate any one (UPA partner) to remain in power.
“The rules of the coalition dharma have been changed,” a well-placed source in the government said hinting that “law will take its own course” is the mantra of the UPA II.
An upset DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi is in a fix as he neither can leave the UPA at this juncture nor can fight with the Centre and the Jayallithaa government simultaneously. On the other hand, the BJP-led NDA is not keen to welcome the DMK after the scam in the 2G spectrum allocation.
The DMK has three options. First, to remain in the UPA and try to protect its leaders and ministers, Second,to withdraw its ministers at the Centre and third to quit the UPA and rejoin the NDA after some time.
But a section of the Congress foresees the possibility that the DMK could decide on the withdrawal of the its ministers at the Centre at its meeting in Chennai. The meeting, the first after DMK’s drubbing in the Assembly polls in which it finished a poor third, is being held in the wake of the Delhi high court denying bail to DMK MP and Karunanidhi’s daughter, Kanimozhi, in the 2G spectrum case.
The DMK’s direction to all members of the committee to “participate in the meeting without fail” has fuelled talk in Congress that an important decision is likely to be taken by the Dravidian party on Friday. .
Of late, the 87-year old DMK patriarch has been critical of the Congress, telling the cadres that bad friendship ends in trouble.
He had on Sunday blamed the Centre for the arrest of Kanimozhi, saying it was either due to its “orders or complacency.”
The party has been going through a rough patch of late, with Kanimozhi and Karunanidhi’s trusted junior colleague and former telecom minister A. Raja lodged in jail for their alleged roles in the 2G spectrum scam allocation.
Mr Karunanidhi’s grandnephew and Union minister Dayanidhi Maran is also under the scanner in the 2G case and his resignation is being demanded by the Opposition.
If the DMK decides to withdraw from the government, it could avoid the ignominy of Mr Maran having to quit like Raja. Besides Maran, other DMK ministers at the Centre are: Mr M.K. Alagiri, Mr S.S. Palanimanickam, Mr Gandhiselvan, Mr D. Napolean and Mr S. Jagatrakshakan.
The DMK is the third largest constituent of the UPA after the Congress and the Trinamul Congress. It has 18 Members in Lok Sabha.
The recent developments have upset Mr Karunanidhi a lot who had during his last visit to the national capital skipped meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is also the UPA chairperson. Mr Karunanidhi’s visit to Delhi was to meet Kanimozhi in Tihar jail here.
The talk in the Congress is that Mr Karunanidhi could pull out his ministers from the Centre in an apparent move to show displeasure with Congress but would continue to extend support to the government from outside.
The Congress leaders admit that if such a development occurs then the Central coalition would be a “bit less stable” as the DMK has been a reliable ally for the past seven years.