CHENNAI: Fighting with his back to the wall, ageing DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi harbours no illusions as he is aware of the sand drifting beneath his feet. Unlike those frontline leaders around him, still living in past glory, he knows his task has been cut out. Out of power at the centre and in the state, the party staging a come back in the 2016 assembly poll is difficult without allies, who would not hesitate to demand their pound of the flesh. This time, they are not content with seats but want a share in the power pie. And the old man of Gopalapuram appears to be prepared to concede to that rather than stare at a bleak future.
In a major climb down, he had indicated the party’s readiness for a DMK-led coalition government if elected to power. For, so swift was his rebuttal of party senior and spokesperson T K S Elangovan, who among other things, had said in an interview last that the DMK was not for a coalition government. The nonagenarian lost no time to disown Elangovan’s views, making it clear that it was not the party line. Not content with the strong denial, Karunanidhi, in a letter to the cadre, lamented that the interview had troubled him so much that he even lost his siesta. “I couldn’t sleep even after directing to issue a denial. In the evening, I skipped a marriage reception as well. I was troubled,” said he.
A trusted lieutenant of the leadership and son of a former DMK stalwart, the suave Elangovan had said the DMK would contest a lion’s share of at least 170 out of the 234 Assembly seats. “The decision to field only 119 candidates in the 2011 elections let us down. Though our vote share remained more or less intact, it failed to convert into seats. We are not prepared to repeat that mistake,” was his reasoning. While maintaining that the party was prepared to concede about 30 seats to the Congress, he was hopeful of the Vaiko of MDMK and Vijayakant of DMDK besides the Left teaming up with the DMK. At the same time, he made it clear that the Dalit party VCK , which was the first to raise the demand of coalition government, as well as the Vanniyar-dominant PMK were not welcome.
This comes after TNCC chief E V K S Elangovan made it clear that the Congress would not settle for anything less than deputy chief ministership while MDMK and the Left parties as well as the VCK and the Muslim outfit, MMK, are apparently charting a new course. “We will neither align with the DMK nor with the AIADMK,” said Vaiko, adding that the five-party conglomeration is indeed an electoral front.
With elections still months ahead, the DMK patriarch has not lost hope and hence, was rattled at Elangovan putting a spoke at the emerging possibilities. For, only a fortnight ago, the old war horse wanted him to be included in any ‘alliance’. “Without the DMK there can’t be an alliance,” he said at a the party’s women’s wing conference, a show of his daughter Kanimozhi.
And political observers are of the view that the DMK president is increasingly coming closer to opting the idea of coalition government. “If the DMK considers the minor parties raking up the issue of coalition government as a bargaining ploy, it is clearly mistaken. Karunanidhi, more than anyone else in the party, knows the political pulse. Hence, he is not prepared to shut the doors on this idea,” said P Ramajayam, a psephologist and political analyst with the Centre for Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Bharathidasan University, Trichy.
If a cornered DMK accedes to this, it would be a watershed in the political trajectory of the state. For, this would be the second time that the DMK opts for a coalition government ahead of election. In 1980, when the DMK and Congress under Indira Gandhi accepted coalition government and contested 50-50 seats in the Assembly election, it turned out to be a disaster with the combine losing to MGR. Will history repeat itself?