Congress, BJP Expedite Firming Alliances in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Both the major national parties are expediting the process of firming up their alliances in Tamil Nadu with the BJP honcho B L Santhosh holding a meeting in Chennai on Monday and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi inviting State leaders of the party, including the 74 district presidents, to New Delhi on Tuesday, for taking a final call on its coalition that had run into trouble of late.

With just 65 days left for the Assembly polls – that is speculated to be held in the second week of April – the BJP should coordinate with the allies at all levels by forming local committees and work in unison, Santhosh told the meeting called by him and attended by top State BJP leaders like Union Minister L Murugan, Nainar Nagenthiran and Tamilisai Soundararajan national level leaders like Sudakhar Reddy.

Conspicuous by his absence at the important meeting was former State president and Santhosh acolyte, K Annamalai, who was also recently in the news for not taking up the responsibility given to him to oversee the election process in six Assembly constituencies. Santhosh is expected to talk to Annamalai and smoothen the ruffled feathers.

Rahul Gandhi’s meeting has been called to bring and an end the impasse in the seat-sharing negotiations that have hit a cul de sac after a wide range of Congress leaders, including sitting MPs and MLAs, expressed views that earned the wrath of DMK leaders, and the Congress reportedly insisting on power sharing and more number of seats to contest.

Though the Congress had formed a committee, headed by its Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar, to hold talks with the DMK on seat sharing in December beginning itself, the DMK has not yet announced its committee that would take part in the deliberations, leading to the present impasse. Though Chodankar camped in Chennai for a few days, he could not resume the talks with DMK and left for Delhi.

It is learnt that since some Congress leaders were given a free rein to lash out at the DMK through social media posts, the DMK has made it clear that there was no question of increasing the number of seats beyond the present offer of 25 and that there was absolutely no chance for meeting the aspiration of 35 seats and definitely no chance of sharing power.

It is speculated that the toughening of stand by the Congress could have angered the DMK so much that it might have taken a ‘take it or leave it’ position without showing any interest in holding negotiations on finalizing the number of seats on which it could not make a compromise.

Since the decision that the Congress leaders would like to take on Tuesday might have serious ramifications, the high command wanted to elicit the views of all district secretaries and other State leaders. Time is also running out for the party, whose alternative plan is to align with the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) of Vijay, who had told the Congress that it wanted a quick answer.