US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Cong may use DMK card with AIADMK

N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai

With the AIADMK acting tough on seat-sharing, the Congress negotiators are likely to play the DMK card during their talks with Jayalalitha. The Congress team is expected here later this week minus former finance minister, Manmohan Singh, whose place has been taken by former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, K Vijayabhaskar Reddy.

The Congress-AIADMK talks are bogged down in the number of seats the former would contest. Still nurturing hopes of coming to power on its own at the Centre, the Congress wants as many seats as possible from the traditionally strong Tamil Nadu base.

On the other hand, Jayalalitha, sources close to her said, believes that the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections would throw up a hung Parliament. In which case, she would like to have the bargaining power. Also, people close to her hope that this bargaining power this time would produce something more than mere ministerial posts for her party colleagues.

Some supporters even fancy Jayalalitha becoming the prime minister. Says one of them: "If with 40 MPs you could become prime minister earlier, 25 or so should be enough this time."

It is in this background that the Congress is weighing the option of using the DMK card to bring the AIADMK round.

Says a Congress leader in Chennai, who recently met party president Sonia Gandhi: "Apart from using the DMK as a bargaining chip against the AIADMK, we need not close the DMK option altogether. The DMK feels decisively uncomfortable in BJP's company. Also, their leaders have not attacked either the Congress or the Tamil Manila Congress, another of our possible allies.''

DMK chief M Karunanidhi is on record saying that he went the BJP way only because the Congress did not evince interest, despite repeated feelers.

From the Congress stand-point, the Jain Commission clearing the DMK in the Rajiv Gandhi case are good enough reasons.

While the DMK seems to have gone too far with the BJP, to make an about-turn without loss of credibility, the party may not be averse to the idea of using the Congress to strike a profitable deal with the BJP and other allies in the State.

Meanwhile, time is running out for the Congress. The TMC will go public with its election plan on July 15. A big bash has been planned at Madurai by the party on the day, which is the birth anniversary of the late Kamaraj. At this meeting party chief G K Moopanar has promised to announce his election strategy.

Even otherwise, the Congress is hard pressed for time. The Election Commission is sort of finalising the poll dates, and the worse seems to be over on the Kargil front. If there are ticklish issues facing the government on the Kargil front, Congress leaders agree that these may be of technical nature.

Tell us what you think of this report