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Pondicherry : AIADMK sends warning signals to Congress |
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There are clear signs that AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa is all set to break off ties with the Congress, which was forged during the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. The first sign came last week when the three-member AIADMK in the Pondicherry Assembly withdrew support to the Congress Government in the Union Territory, giving rise to fresh speculation in political circles that AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa was warming up to the BJP. There is no immediate threat to the N Rangaswamy Government with the AIADMK’s withdrawal of support but what is significant is that this is Jayalalithaa’s second move in the last few days which points to a possible shift in the political equations in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry in the future.
Only recently, in sharp contrast to DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s voicing reservations against the Centre’s Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, Jayalalithaa had come out strongly in support of POTO. Her party’s backing of POTO can become useful for the NDA Government which is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha when the Bill to convert the ordinance into law comes up in Parliament.
The ties between the DMK and the BJP have not exactly been happy in the recent past with strains developing during the recent municipal elections. Prime Minister Vajpayee and Karunanidhi did not care to call on each other during the former’s visit to Chennai last month. The DMK chief has also voiced his displeasure over the Centre’s not taking any action against those responsible for his arrest and the subsequent police action on partymen who were taking out a rally.
The Pondicherry development seemed to have taken the Congress leadership in Delhi totally by surprise. “The AIADMK took the decision all of a sudden,” Ramesh Chennithala, the party’s in-charge of Pondicherry, disclosed. He said that talks had taken place between the local Congress leadership and the AIADMK about the inclusion of the latter in the Cabinet. “There were two more posts vacant in the Cabinet which we had planned to fill after the vote of confidence,” he added. The Assembly is being convened from November 21. In Pondicherry, an AIADMK leader claimed that Pradesh Congress leader V. Narayanasamy had “not kept the promise given to Jayalalithaa and hence the decision to withdraw support.” It was claimed that the Congress had assured the AIADMK that it would be accommodated in the Government.
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