IF Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's son Stalin was a surprise candidate for the Madras mayor's post, the trumpcard came from Jayalalitha Jayaram, the much-beleaguered AIADMK chief. No political pundit could have predicted she would strike a 'deal' with foe-in-chief, Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy. But she has responded to Swamy's call for a united fight against the DMK by withdrawing the AIADMK candidate against Chandralekha, the Janata Party's state unit chief and a bitter rival.
Swamy denies reports of a 'deal' outright and insists he will pursue all cases he has filed against her. "Neither I nor any Janata Party leader has spoken to her or any other AIADMK leader on any occasion, much less worked out a deal. Both she and I are surrounded by the police for security, it's impossible for us to have worked out a deal." But Madras is agog with speculation of a ceasefire. Swamy and lieutenant Chandra-lekha, a former IAS officer, have been Jaya-lalitha's bitterest critics. Indeed, one charge against the former chief minister is that she had hired goons to throw acid on Chandra-lekha. The Janata Party leader's face was disfigured after the attack in 1992.
Past acrimony seems to have paled in the face of more immediate needs. The corporation elections were threatening to be a cakewalk for Stalin. Jayalalitha, with the professed aim of defeating "Karunanidhi's attempts to foist dynastic rule", has at one go thrown the contest open and waved the white flag at her tormentors.
In a statement from her fortress Veda Nilayam in Poes Garden, Jayalalitha accused Karunanidhi of acting like a Mughal emperor: "After making nephew Murasoli Maran a sultan of Delhi, Karunanidhi is trying to foist his son as the mayor of Madras. As this goes against the grain of democracy, I accept the logic in Swamy's appeal for a common candidate against family rule." Maran and Stalin are the favourite whipping boys in any anti-DMK tirade, though both have been in politics long enough. Maran has spent some three decades in Parliament. When he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1967, the DMK was led by C.N. Annadurai and not Karunanidhi. Stalin joined the party in 1971.
Karunanidhi was equally caustic: "There's no question of family rule. I've created no extra-constitutional authority like Sasikala. Nor did I conduct any hundred-crore wedding for a foster son who I subsequently disown." (The reference is to Sudhakaran, who became the flashiest groom in Madras last year.)
The pro-DMK parties say Jayalalitha was foisted upon the people of Tamil Nadu because of her proximity to her one-time film hero MGR. This gives her no moral ground to accuse Karunanidhi of family rule, they argue, citing the fact that both Maran and Stalin always got elected by huge margins. Asks CPI General Secretary Nallakannu: "How can you deny a person his democratic rights when Jayalalitha has been foisting Sasikala and her relatives on the people?" Even state BJP Secretary Ela Ganesan minces no words: "There is a deal behind this new-found love. It shows politics of opportunism is complete." AIADMK sources affirm this, saying the four cases filed by Swamy against Jayalalitha had forced her hand. The spectre of rebellion within the AIADMK too must have been a goad.
The legal noose is indeed tightening. On September 8, the High Court directed the CBI to investigate the acid-throwing case and submit a report in three months. The prime accused, 'Surala', has stated that Jayalalitha and Sasikala are responsible. In the Rs 250-crore coal import scam, the principal sessions judge responded to Swamy's private complaint on August 16 and ordered a special inquiry. There is prima facie evidence implicating Jayalali-tha and the DGP has begun investigations. Acting on another private complaint by Swamy, the Madras sessions court has ordered an inquiry into the properties amassed by Jayalalitha. Again, in the Tansi land deal case Swamy has sought that she be disqualified and barred from contesting elections for six years. The Supreme Court has told the Election Commission to probe the case and decide in six months.
There is a feeling that, at this stage, nothing will save Jayalalitha. Observes Dravi-dian scholar Era Thyaga-rajan: "This alliance is akin to the Congress-AIADMK alliance during the Lok Sabha poll. It will marginalise the AIADMK further and obliterate the Janata Party." Others point to Jayalalitha's series of survival moves—disowning Sudhakaran, severing ties with her live-in friend Sasikala and family, allowing party workers to vent their grouses—and would rather wait and watch.
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