CHENNAI : For Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who led the first non-Congress government at the Centre to complete its full term, the alliance experience with the Dravidian parties was not so comfortable between 1998 and 2003. Somehow, the AIADMK, DMK and MDMK, which were part of the two successive governments led by Vajpayee, snapped ties prematurely. Vajpayee headed the first BJP government at the Centre after the party emerged as the singe largest one in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections. But within 13 days, Vajpayee stepped down as he could not garner majority.
The second government, headed by Vajpayee from 1998, lasted 13 months until mid-1999 when the AIADMK withdrew its support. The government lost the vote of confidence motion by just one vote. In the 1998 LS elections, the BJP got five seats in the alliance led by AIADMK. The seat sharing was AIADMK (23), PMK, BJP and MDMK got five seats each and Janata Party led by Subramanian Swamy got one seat. The AIADMK won 18 seats while the BJP and MDMK got three seats each and the PMK won four seats. Janata Party won one.
But right from the initial days, the then PM Vajpayee faced so much pressure from AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on various demands. Vajpayee used to send top leaders including the then Defence Minister, George Fernandes, to hold talks with Jayalalithaa. When Vajpayee reached an understanding with the governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry on August 7, 1998, over the sharing of the Cauvery waters, on August 10, Jayalalithaa warned that her party would review its support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government if it failed to notify the original draft scheme for implementing the interim award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. However, Vajpayee could not convince her over this issue.
There were reports that Jayalalithaa demanded transfer of many Central government key officials in the Enforcement Directorate and Revenue department and wanted appointment of officials of her own choice. At that time, there were strong rumours that Jayalalithaa demanded dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu. Political analyst Tharasu Shyam recalls how the ties between the AIADMK and the BJP gradually deteriorated: “In 1998, initially the BJP-AIADMK alliance was going smoothly. Sedapatti R. Muthiah had to resign from the Union Cabinet on April 7 after holding office as the Union minister for surface transport for just 21 days because there was a disproportionate wealth case pending against him.
However, Buta Singh, the then Communication Minister, facing charges refused to resign. This had irked Jayalalithaa who felt different yardstick were applied for different parties in the Union Cabinet. However, later, Vajpayee had to drop Buta Singh from his council of ministers in the wake of the Supreme Court indicting him in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case.
In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP aligned with the DMK in Tamil Nadu. The seat sharing was DMK (19), PMK (7), BJP (6), MDMK (5), MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by Su Thirunavukkarasar (1) and Thamizhaga Rajiv Congress led by Vazhappadi K Ramamurthy (1). The NDA won 26 seats: DMK (12), PMK(5), BJP (4), MDMK (4) and MGR ADMK (1). Karunanidhi had to justify DMK’s alliance with the BJP which was dubbed communal.