CHENNAI, February 7: The latest utterances by the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) leader G K Moopanar during the course of his election campaign are likely to worry his partners in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (DMK). After maintaining a stoic silence on Sonia Gandhi's entry into politics all these days, he has for the first time said in an interview to a news agency that she is going to have an `electrifying effect' on the secular forces.Moreover, in his meetings in Cuddalore district, he reportedly said there were shortcomings in the DMK rule which TMC had repeatedly pointed out and hoped that the DMK government would deliver goods in the remaining part of its tenure. He however did add that a year and a half was too short a time to evaluate a government and that there had not been any grave charges against the state government.
Political circles are viewing this development with interest. Moopanar's affinity to the Gandhi family is well known. Many political pundits feel that he would have rejoinedCongress-I had Sonia Gandhi not delayed her plunge into active politics, rather than aligning with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) - a relationship that was not all too cordial. Are these statements an indication of things to come after the polls, they wonder.
The alliance was forged hurriedly in 1996 after the then Congress leader P V Narasimha Rao decided to continue the alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) despite strong reservations expressed by the state unit. Congressmen under G K Moopanar broke away from Congress-I to form TMC which aligned with DMK to sweep the elections.
Had Narasimha Rao not made the mistake, the state Congress unit had planned to stand alone in the elections with the support of cine star Rajinikant and was hoping to usher in `Kamraj rule'.
The relationship between the partners soured when it came to be known that DMK leaders had spiked Moopanar's chances in the the prime ministerial sweepstakes after Congress asked for Deve Gowda's head. Thepartners began to trade charges and talks of `Kamraj rule' resurfaced. Incidentily, it was the talk of `Kamraj rule' that triggered the end of the AIADMK-Congress alliance.
It looked like the alliance would come to an end but things began to cool with the sudden announcement of elections. As a new party, TMC needed some time to establish for itself a sizable base and continuing its allianc with DMK was the only ideal option for it. DMK, too, felt that they could repeat the 1996 performance by continuing the tie-up.
The recent statements are likely to raise quite a few eyebrows in the DMK camp and fuel speculations about the possibility of some sort of post-poll re-alignment.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
