After the Congress, it appears to be the turn of the BJP to be the favourite whipping boy of the Dravidian majors in the state.
Both the principal Dravidian parties, the ruling AIADMK as well as the DMK have been training their guns on the saffron party. With the D-Day for the elections drawing closer, the two parties have given up their initial reticence and are unsparing in their criticism of the BJP. Whether they are rattled at the prospect of losing the minority vote or not, the two dominant players sharpening their attack comes after the sustained campaign of the Left parties and Muslim outfits questioning their silence.
Proving wrong speculation that the AIADMK was going soft on the BJP and castigating the Congress with intentions of forming a post-poll alliance, CM Jayalalithaa accused the saffron party of betraying the interests of TN, be it the Cauvery issue or the sticky problem of the Sri Lankan Tamils. She chose to launch a broadside on the day when its PM candidate Narendra Modi was in Chennai to address a rally and visited superstar Rajnikanth.
The AIADMK offensive has been on the rise after Modi blamed them last week for devoting their energies to politicking rather than development of the state. Going a step ahead, Jayalalithaa has said that a vote to the BJP would be futile. More than their commitment to secularism, it is borne out of realpolitik, argue observers. For, in the case of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, it was a political somersault of sorts. For, not long ago, he had certified Modi as a ‘good person and an able administrator’. The party was muted in its reaction even when the BJP released its manifesto. This too provided a handle for critics to accuse him of preparing the ground for a post-election alliance.
But, Karunanidhi, apparently forgetting that he is married thrice and has two wives, trained his guns on Modi over the latter’s belated revelation about his marital status. Both the octogenarian and the party’s heir apparent, M K Stalin, have been warning about the ghost of communalism raising its ugly head if the BJP came to power.
According to analysts like P Ramajaym of Bharathidasan University, who is also the coordinator of the CSDS poll surveys, says that while it is quite understandable that the DMK, fighting with its back to the wall, is out to protect its minority turf, the AIADMK is also concerned about the right-wing voters moving towards the saffron coalition. This, they say, goes on to explain the change in AIADMK’s strategy in confronting the NDA rainbow alliance.