A day after the DMK boycotted the anti-CAA meeting convened by Congress party in Delhi, the party echoing Dravidian sentiments seems to be in a mood to make its long-time partner quit the alliance.
"Those (Congress) who want to leave us, can do so. What’s there for us to lose? We don’t care about the Congress exiting the alliance. I, specifically do not care. The grand old party’s move would not have any impact on our votes. Only if it existed (Congress vote bank) should we have any concern,” said DMK treasurer, Durai Murugan at a Pongal festival event organised by party cadres in Vellore.
A day after TR Baalu, remained non-committal on the alliance with the statement "Time will tell", Durai Murugan's statement has made it apparent that the DMK does not want its primary ally Congress to be part of the alliance.
In fact, Durai Murugan even made it clear when asked to clarify on Baalu's statement. "He said time will tell. But I am giving you a straight reply."
The statement from, Durai Murugan, who is known to be an all-time confidant of DMK president MK Stalin, has sent out a strong message on the growing indifference in the DMK-Congress alliance and that the DMK wants to have an upper hand and act as the big brother. Minutes after Durai Murugan commented on the alliance, Congress' Karti P Chidambaram took to Twitter and responded by saying, "Why did not this wisdom dawn before the Vellore Parliamentary by election?"
Durai Murugan's son, MP Kathir Anand won from Vellore with nearly an 8000 votes margin, much less than the victory margin by DMK in the general Lok Sabha polls.
It all began on Friday when Tamil Nadu Congress party president KS Alagiri along with his party colleague and Congress party's legislative leader KR Ramasamy issued a statement expressing regret for its ally DMK not allotting the union chairman posts in the local body polls. Soon after the statement, DMK Lok Sabha MP TR Baalu chose to boycott the anti-CAA meeting organised by Congress, even though he was in Delhi.
"The DMK, by not taking part in this meeting has committed a big mistake. The DMK, which is anti-Modi, anti-BJP and anti-CAA, can take the protests nationwide and continue its opposition only by only being with the Congress. Alliance and opposing CAA are entirely different," says senior journalist SP Lakshmanan.
DMK, according to its party insiders, though came close to power could not win the majority because Congress demanded and contested from a chunk of 40 seats in the alliance but won only 8 of them. Sources say, the DMK now wants to ensure that the Congress doesn't demand more seats in the 2021 elections. However, the vote share in 2014 and 2016 show that the DMK was able to grab a victory in 30 constituencies because of Congress. While seat sharing is cited as the reason for the drubbing in the alliance, highly placed sources say that the Congress top leaders did not respond to an appointment request for DMK scion. Recently DMK's Youth wing leader Udhayanidhi Stalin was in Delhi to meet the protesting JNU students.
DMK, also feels that it can win the assembly elections in 2020 based on deep-set anti-BJP sentiment in Tamil Nadu. But, with too many players like Kamal Haasan and Seeman in the fray and also Rajinikanth planning a political entry, the DMK's chances to sweep through the polls by grabbing the anti-incumbency votes could be tough. "The DMK believes that there is a strong vote base for the party across the state. That is overconfidence. This is like a double-edged sword which might cause fatal damage if not handled properly," adds AIADMK MP R Lakshmanan.
On the other hand, though the DMK performed well in the local body polls, its rival AIADMK did not lose, like it did in the Lok Sabha polls. The AIADMK proved that it still has a strong vote base in the rural local bodies and managed to win many of the chairman posts, despite several allegations.
