PMK founder S Ramadoss, who is heading a breakaway faction of the party after his son Anbumani Ramadoss walked away with the party's official credentials and most of the party’s functionaries to be part of the NDA, and former aide of J Jayalalihaa who was ousted from AIADMK, V K Sasikala, issued a joint statement announcing their alliance.
Chennai: Amidst delays in the finalization of seat-sharing in the major alliances in Tamil Nadu and the BJP and NR Congress coming together again in Puducherry after a bout of bickering, two splinter groups that neither of the two big coalitions wanted to touch with a bargepole joined hands on Friday by shedding the ‘betrayal identity’ of the State with only the people’s welfare in mind.
PMK founder S Ramadoss, who is heading a breakaway faction of the party after his son Anbumani Ramadoss walked away with the party's official credentials and most of the party’s functionaries to be part of the NDA, and former aide of J Jayalalihaa who was ousted from AIADMK, V K Sasikala, issued a joint statement announcing their alliance.
The union of Ramadoss, claiming to still hold the reins of the party that he founded but confined to his house in Thailapuram, and Sasikala, christening her party as ‘Anaithindia Puratchi Thalaivar Makkal Munnetra Kazgagm’ is of no consequence in the electoral politics of the State, where a four-cornered contest in on the cards otherwise with Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi and Vijay’s Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) plowing a lonely burrow.
The rest of parties are lined up in two opposite camps, where egos and demands for seats are temporarily preventing them from burying the hatchets and starting the united campaign for the April 23 elections in Tamil Nadu.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s visit to Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and finalise the seat-sharing, which is yet to happen, became a subject for ridicule in the other camp with State Minister and DMK principal secretary K Nehru pointing out that the alliance talks have moved away to Delhi from the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai.
Palaniswami, who met the media in Delhi before taking the flight back to Chennai on Friday, denied holding talks with the TVK for an alliance, putting to rest speculation on the emergence of a mega alliance to defeat the ruling DMK and its multi-hued coalition of about a score of parties.
The DMK was facing trouble in meeting the demands of its long-time allies like the CPM and the VCK that are anyway waiting for the alliance leader to come around and accede to their demands. Similarly the AIADMK-BJP coalition, too, is dealing with some recalcitrant allies.
But in Puducherry, the N R Congress agreed to go with the BJP in the elections after playing truant for some time and did not press with its demand to not give any importance to Latchya Jananayaga Congress of Charles Jose Martin. Now Martin will get just two seats to contest. Even the rift between the Congress and DMK in Puducherry over the leadership of the coalition, would be settled in favour of the Congress, sources said.
