National

Bounce In Her Steps

Jayalalitha rises from the ashes

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Bounce In Her Steps
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“Aiyyo paavam andha amma (Oh, poor amma),” Azhagiri is said to have reacted to the 40-minute blitzing of him by AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha (in a 100-minute speech) at the Madurai meeting on October 18. But if public reactions were anything to go by, the DMK patriach’s eldest son might want to keep a little sympathy for himself. The rally attracted a sea of humanity despite 16 death threat letters and calls to Jayalalitha, forcing the government to order a CBI inquiry (which is yet to take off). Azhagiri claims her speech was written by a dialogue writer and full of unverified facts. Jayalalitha accused him and his cronies of running a parallel government in Madurai and said he should be in the Guinness book for his poor showing in Parliament and in his ministry. 

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The AIADMK chief was indeed in her element. And every jibe, barb and crack she hurled at the DMK was met with cheers in this temple town, a supposed Azhagiri fief. The response was such that the latter must be wondering whether his hold on Madurai—to which he was banished 30 years ago by father M. Karunanidhi because he was an embarrassment—is coming undone.

Even if one disbelieves the AIADMK chief’s estimate that 50 lakh people heading to her rally were stopped in their tracks by the police, the fact that CM Karunanidhi has subsequently used two of his district-level meetings with DMK functionaries and the party’s official mouthpiece, Murasoli, to rubbish her rally reflects the fact that Jayalalitha has set alarm bells ringing. As AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP Dr V. Maitreyan put it, “Karunanidhi is rattled and we are upbeat.”

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The CM even inadvertently acknowledged that Jayalalitha had held the mother of all rallies by saying “huge turnouts don’t exactly translate into votes”. But in the AIADMK chief’s case, it’s proof that she’s back in the reckoning in a big way after successive defeats in the nine bypolls post-2006 assembly polls and the poor showing in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In fact, till recently Amma was only in the news for disappearing to her hill retreat at Kodanadu for weeks on end which in turn had left the cadre dejected and wondering whether she had lost her edge. Her party also seemed in tatters with many leaders, including mlas, abandoning what they perceived as a sinking ship to make their home in the DMK. Incidentally, Azhagiri was the architect behind many of these desertions.

Her protest rallies in Coimbatore in July and Tiruchi in August “tilted the trend”, says Dr Maitreyan although Karunanidhi was quite blase about it. But Madurai has changed all that. More evidence comes in the form of actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth moving closer to Jayalalitha via the Left parties who are her allies. Dr Maitreyan says, “Rahul Gandhi saw the CDs of the Tiruchi rally and was stunned.” Whether that is true or not, it’s obvious that DMK-Congress relations are prickly on the ground even if party leaders maintain the alliance will stay on for the assembly polls next year.

Still, one rally does not a wave make. Perhaps Jayalalitha should take Azhagiri seriously when he says, “If she wants to come back to power, she should list her promises and tell people what she will deliver for their welfare.” Indeed, merely claiming that she will “drive Azhagiri and Karunanidhi out of the state” might bring the applause but will they bring in votes? Jayalalitha has to do much more, explain what her promised “golden rule” means.

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