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NDA rivals take issue to Karunanidhi

First it was PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss. Then came Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress leader Vazhappadi K Ramamurthy. By meeting the Tamil Nadu chief minister and state leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance, both partners in the national combine have taken their public sparring against each other to the highest level.

With assembly elections round the corner, it signals an early end to the NDA's internal bickerings and the PMK's future in the combine.

Ramadoss is reported have repeated his public demand for the dismissal of TRC from the BJP-NDA for the PMK to continue, when he met Karunanidhi.

The TRC chief was milder, given his weak political standing and desire to continue in the NDA for his party to get a handful of seats in the assembly polls.

Ramadoss reminded Karunanidhi of an NDA decision in May, to drop the TRC if it did not stop public criticism of the PMK leadership. Ramamurthy, on the other hand, pointed out that his party had said nothing controversial for over three months, despite provocation.

While the BJP leader has left it to the DMK to sort out, the latter is said to be weighing the options and the seriousness of the PMK's charge. The DMK leadership is not convinced that the PMK's charge is either serious, truthful or even complete. The party feels that Ramadoss is finding excuses to opt out of the BJP-NDA, for better political pastures on the eve of the polls, and would like the DMK and NDA to take the blame.

"There is no great truth in Ramadoss' charges against Ramamurthy and the TRC," said a senior DMK leader. "Nor is Ramamurthy as serious a contender for the leadership of their backward Vanniar community as Ramadoss seeks to make him out to be. Ramadoss is only conferring 'greatness' on Ramamurthy, who does not deserve it, given his minority of a political outfit, which has had no casteist over-run."

The DMK and BJP believe that the PMK leadership is raising a non-issue only to find a way out of the NDA, if Ramadoss decided thus. "Ramadoss is still weighing the electoral options of the PMK, and also its prospects in different combinations. He also will have to take into account the possibility of losing two ministerial berths at the Centre, if he quits the NDA."

The DMK leadership feels that the PMK's protestations would stand exposed if the NDA yielded ground on the TRC issue. "The TRC is as much a national partner of the NDA as the PMK, DMK or BJP. None of us can demand the ouster of another, if the other one is unwilling to yield. More importantly, there is no guarantee that Ramadoss and the PMK will keep quiet or even continue in the NDA, if we yield to his demand now."

Instead, the DMK and NDA yielding to 'unjust demands' of Ramadoss would embolden the PMK to stake a higher claim in seat-sharing talks, according to the DMK sources. "We need to contain their ambitions, in the interests of both, as the DMK and PMK share the same northern strongholds, and in the larger interests of the NDA in the state.

''Should Ramadoss walk out on the NDA, even after we meet his demands, if only for argument sake, we would have lost out Vanniar leaders in our combine," said a DMK leader, adding, "Ramadoss should also take credit for projecting Ramamurthy as a rival Vanniar leader, when he was otherwise a discredited district-level leader of Congress stock."

The BJP and DMK are convinced that the PMK's over-reach is based on an 'unrealistic assessment' of the party's strength and Ramadoss' reach in the Vanniar community. "Like most other one-agenda, casteist parties, the PMK leadership too is past its peak," said a BJP leader, adding, "The trouble flows from Ramadoss' undeclared ambition to make his son, Dr S Anbumani, chief minister of Pondicherry after the assembly polls in the union territory, and follow it up with his ascendancy to power in the next round of assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, which is due in 2006."

For all this, the DMK leadership of the NDA is on the horns of a dilemma. The party needs the PMK votes, or matching votes, to work the numbers game in its favour in the assembly polls. However, the DMK also perceives the PMK as a permanent trouble-maker, which would cut into the popularity of the NDA, and the political base of the DMK, as well.

The DMK cannot take a decision on retaining the PMK, or letting it quit the NDA, until it can find an equal ally like the TMC, which is now on the other side of the fence though undecided yet on the electoral alliance.

"We will not ask the PMK to go," said the DMK source. "If the party quits, it would be on its own," he added, referring to Karunanidhi's oft-repeated announcements that he would not ask any ally to quit any combine led by the DMK.

"If the PMK decides to quit, it will also have to accept blame. The party cannot make the DMK a scapegoat for its over-ambitious plans," said the DMK leader, adding, "Ramadoss should realise that the Vanniar community is not anymore with him totally and his glory of the 1998 Lok Sabha polls is past him, for him to relive it now."

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