With the Congress government in Puducherry on the brink of collapse, the party is coming to be seen as dead weight by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), its alliance partner in Tamil Nadu.
The Puducherry government slipped into a minority government with two MLAs John Kumar and Malladi Krishna Rao tendering their resignation in the last two days. Malladi Krishna Rao was a Cabinet Minister in the current Narayanswamy government. Two of the MLAs – A Namassivayam and E.Theeppainjan – resigned on January 25. With this, 4 Congress MLAs have resigned, breaking the wafer-thin majority. Now, both the Congress-DMK and AIADMK-BJP alliances have 14 MLAs each in the 30 member Assembly.
The loss of their majority in Puducherry comes as an embarrassment for the Congress, as it comes just ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Union Territory.
Meanwhile, there have been some other developments 100 km away from Puducherry. If reports are to be believed, actor politician Kamal Haasan’s party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) is expected to forge an alliance with the DMK.
Despite the fact that Kamal Haasan has been a critic of the Dravidian parties (harsh critic of the AIADMK but going soft on DMK), political commentators in Tamil Nadu say that with the upcoming elections, Kamal might sway towards a potential alliance with the DMK. There are various speculations in the media about the ongoing talks with the existing coalition parties. It is to be noted that, the chances of Kamal coming in might mean that the Congress might have to step out of its alliance with the DMK.
Insiders aware of the developments say that while talks are on about how many seats will be allotted to the existing parties in the DMK-led alliance, DMK chief MK Stalin and his son-in-law, Sabareesan, are quietly negotiating without anyone knowing about a potential end card for the Congress and are planning to bring in MNM in its place. None of the party’s leading leaders, including Duraimurugan, TR Balu, Principal Secretary KN Nehru, Deputy General Secretaries Ponmudi, A. Razza, I. Periyasamy and Anthiyur Selvaraj, are aware of these efforts, it is said.
In one of the reports, a source was quoted saying that Sabareesan’s plan is to give 21 of the 41 seats allotted to the Congress in the last election to Kamal Haasan’s party. He said that Sabareesan was constantly found coaxing Kamal over the phone trying to bring him into the DMK alliance. Negotiations were also held with Arjun, the son-in-law of businessman Martin. Kamal Haasan has been assured that if the MNM joins the DMK alliance, they would definitely be given 21 seats. However, Kamal has not made any commitment yet.
This information had reached the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami through intelligence who then sent a representative from his side to talk with Kamal Haasan. While no one is aware of what exactly transpired between the two, Kamal Haasan’s activities seems to have undergone a change who recently lashed out at the DMK. It is here that Sabareesan’s plan seems to have had a setback.
However, Sabareesan is supposedly not giving up and is in continuous conversations with Kamal Haasan. Reportedly, Mahendran, who was earlier with Vijay TV and is said to be close to Kamal Haasan, is being used to rope in Kamal into the DMK alliance.
It is to be noted that Kamal had initially not been in contention for an alliance with the DMK. But, following the meeting between the CM’s envoy and Kamal Haasan, DMK seems to have developed a sudden interest in bringing him into their party.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is reportedly upset after coming to know of DMK’s intentions. He is said to have said that the Congress, being third-largest party in Tamil Nadu, cannot accept the DMK’s attempt to bring in the Kamal Party to reduce his party’s tickets. Rahul Gandhi is of the opinion that his party will be in an alliance if the DMK gives the tickets or will walk out of the alliance.’
Amid rising tensions between the two long term allies, it could be noticed that MNM has the last laugh in the matter, with the two parties inching towards enmity and hostility towards each other.
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