The question does not arise
The arrest of former telecom minister A Raja gives a whole new twist to politics in Tamil Nadu. Will the DMK become untouchable? The forthcoming assembly election will tell. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s trip to Delhi over last week-end is something he will not look back with relish. Karunanidhi, who is used to being in the driver’s seat when bargaining with allies, finds that he cannot call the shots anymore. There’s no easy way to say this – his three-day trip to Delhi will be remembered because of the embarrassment he was subjected to not only by PMK’s S Ramadoss but also the Congress. The only difference is that Ramadoss openly did it while the Congress was more sophisticated about its message that he cannot take that party for granted anymore. Combine that with a resurgent AIADMK chief Jayalalitha (who is on the verge of an alliance with Vijayakant’s DMDK) and the forthcoming assembly elections is going to be an uphill task for the DMK so hobbled by the Spectrum scam that there’s even talk that deputy CM Stalin might contest from a rural constituency because 2G has not entered the lexicon of villages of TN whereas urban voters are all-knowing. Stalin and his father, Karunanidhi, were elected from Thousand Lights and Chepauk constituencies in Chennai respectively in the 2006 assembly elections.
Karunanidhi’s famed equation with Congress president Sonia Gandhi is not going to work – besides, this time even she made him wait a grueling six hours – because he has to deal with Rahul Gandhi who has made it clear that the Congress should be given 78 seats (two seats per parliamentary constituency) to 80 seats this time. The Congress was given 48 seats in the 2006 assembly elections and won 32.
“The question does not arise.” These were the words Karunanidhi used when asked about an alliance with the PMK, after the latter’s chief embarrassed him by contradicting him publicly about the octogenarian’s statement in Delhi that the Vanniar party is part of the DMK alliance. But there are those who will use the exact same words to contradict Stalin’s recent assertion (apparently reacting to his father’s hint that he would prefer to be the leader (thalaivar) of the party to being the CM (muthalvar) of the state) that Karunanidhi will come back as CM for the sixth time.