Chennai: Amidst talk of a Federal Front without BJP and Congress at the national level, DMK, the major opposition in Tamil Nadu, is keeping its options open at the national level, while watching the moves of its arch rival and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
The DMK has not broken its ties with Congress, which joined its alliance for the recent Assembly elections. The Congress which got 41 seats after tough bargain won in just eight constituencies, bringing down the alliance tally to below 100, a major reason for the inability of the front to form government.
In the previous Assembly elections too, Congress which fought in 63 seats ended up getting only five and the trend had not changed after five years.
Besides, Congress is shrinking at the national level and Karnataka is the only major state in which the Congress is in power, besides a few smaller States. The role of Congress at the national level too is diminishing and the opposition leaders at the national level have begun moves to form a Federal Front without BJP and Congress.
Amid the changing scenario at the national level, DMK Rajya Sabha MP and the party’s face in Delhi politics attended the swearing-in ceremony of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, considered as a key leader in the new front to be cobbled together. However, DMK’s chances of entering the front depends on the preference of the new front’s leaders and the decision of AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa who has 37 MPs in Lok Sabha.
The DMK leaders are not coming down heavily on the Union government headed by BJP either and party chief M. Karunanidhi is welcoming some of the Centre’s moves like inclusion of Narikuravas in the Scheduled Tribes list. If DMK wants to go with BJP, the votes of minorities could be a major concern for the Dravidian party, but Muslim outfits in the alliance had fared poorly in the Assembly elections. The Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, which contested four seats lost all and the Indian Union Muslim League won a single seat out of the five allocated to it.
However, DMK leaders declined to comment on their options at the national level, but also refrained from asserting that their alliance with Congress would continue. One functionary said, “There is no urgency now to decide on Parliament elections. Right now, the DMK’s next target is civic body elections, since the party needs to be strengthened at the grassroots level. Generally, alliances are not broken or formed for local body elections.”
