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All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha today indicated that her party would fight the Lok Sabha election in alliance with "like-minded" political outfits.

But Tamil Maanila Congress president G Karuppaiah Moopanar said his party would have no truck with the AIADMK or the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Asked whether her party would have an alliance with the Congress, Jayalalitha told reporters before leaving for Madras that "once again, we hope to be part of a new government, which will have the supreme national interest at heart".

Shortly before her departure after a sixteen-day stay in the capital, All-India Congress Committee official Ved Prakash went up to Jayalalitha's suite on the 16th floor of Maurya Sheraton and delivered a sealed envelope.

He refused to say what the packet contained.

Jayalalitha said she withdrew her party's support to the BJP-led government at the Centre because it had failed to protect the minorities, besides endangering national security and demoralising the armed forces.

Former prime minister and Janata Dal politician H D Deve Gowda and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet had called on her yesterday amid speculation about a possible political realignment in Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalitha had come to the capital on April 12, stating that the main purpose of her visit was to pull down the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and install an alternative one.

Moopanar, who was also leaving for Madras from the national capital, said his party is opposed to both communalism and corruption.

He refused to believe that the DMK, his partner in two previous general elections, would tie up with the BJP this time since Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has made it clear that a final decision in this regard will have to be taken by the party's general council.

Moopanar had a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the morning and described it as a courtesy call.

Replying to a question, he said a political alliance between the TMC and the Congress did not figure during the thirty-minute meeting.

The TMC, he said, was willing to have "co-ordination" with the Congress, but would retain its identity in state politics.

Asked whether the rally being held in Madras tomorrow by the TMC with the Left parties and the Janata Dal meant a break in the alliance with the DMK, Moopanar said the meeting was merely to explain to the people the circumstances in which they had voted out the Vajpayee government.

UNI

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