Congress, DMK join hands to take on Jayalalithaa in Assembly polls

The DMK and the Congress have joined hands to take on the ruling AIADMK in the coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. The DMK also appears to have agreed to share power should its team win the election. This is a significant departure from the hard-held position by the Dravidian major that the people of Tamil Nadu would never accept a coalition to rule them.

“The Congress will be a part of the DMK alliance to face the Assembly elections. The alliance will be successful and form the government. If more parties join, it (alliance) will be invincible,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters outside DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s Gopalapuram house, after meeting the 92-year-old Dravidian stalwart along with his colleagues Mukul Wasnik and E.V.K.S. Elangovan, the PCC president. The DMK team included party treasurer M.K. Stalin and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi. “First of all, our goal is that a DMK-led government is put in place,” Mr Azad said.

“It is a small thing to be part of the government or not to be part of the government. That is not the only goal but the goal is to form the government under the leadership of the DMK,” Mr Azad responded to mediapersons when pressed for details whether it would be a coalition government and if so, how many ministers the Congress had bargained for.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha heaped praises on Mr Karunanidhi and the DMK, calling him an “esteemed leader” and describing the party as “most dependable”. Asked what had changed between 2013 and 2016 for the two to join hands again, Mr Azad said there were political “compulsions and pressures”.

If there was still some doubt about the coalition possibility, that seemed to clear as Mr Stalin, who spoke to the media after Mr Azad’s departure, said, “They (Congress) have agreed to face the elections as part of an alliance led by the DMK. They have also accepted that a government led by the DMK should be formed.”

While the leaders did not clearly spell out that they have agreed on a coalition government, the fact that both Mr Azad and Mr Stalin chose to use the words “DMK-led government”, instead of saying “DMK government”, indicated that the Congress scored well at the close of some hard bargaining. “Perhaps this question of sharing power has been left so wide open only to excite the other prospective partners. We must remember that they (Congress and DMK) are trying hard to get Vijayakanth (DMDK) into the fold,” a senior Congress leader said.

When reporters asked him how many seats the Congress would get, Mr Azad said, “Once we are going together, the seats more, less, this side or that side does not matter (sic). What matters is that we should form the government.” To a query if any other party will join the alliance, he said it would be left to the DMK to bring in more allies. The DMK, he said, “is the principal party and principal ally under whose leadership the elections are fought (sic). The decision is left to the DMK leadership. They are sitting here. They know who are the potential parties who can be roped in.”

Commenting on the development, political analyst A. Marx said, “The term DMK-led government means that the Congress will be given a few ministerial berths. While the Congress, after its electoral losses and party split here, desperately needs a share in power to retain its cadre and supporters in this state, the DMK remains isolated as no party is willing to join hands with it without the assurance of sharing power. And so the DMK has no option except to accept a coalition government.”