Chennai Corner

Not made for each other
In a film, if the hero and heroine get together, they ride off into the sunset and live happily every after. But in politics, the hero and heroine getting together is impossible. That’s what they say here about a possible alliance between Jayalalitha’s AIADMK and Viayakanth’s DMDK, now that the general elections have been called.Jaya and Vijayakanth’s egos will clash and no good can come from such an alliance, is thetheory.

Vijayakanth, aka "karuppu MGR" (black MGR), has been chiseling away at the AIADMK’s votebank and that’s how he ended up with 8.33 per cent of the votes (and one seat, his own from Virudhachalam assembly constituency) in the 2006 assembly elections. But there isscepticism that he will better his debut showing in the forthcoming election. For one thing, this will be a fight between national and big regional parties like the DMK and the AIADMK and Vijayakanth cannot go solo and make an impact. "I am willing to bet that he’ll tie up with the DMK," says a Congressman.

Despite all his fire and brimstone and his talk early last month calling for a boycott of the elections on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, it is believed that Vijayakanth is in the mood to forgive and forget the witch hunt against him by the ruling DMK government-- his fancy marriage hall in the same premises as his party office at Koyambedu was demolished and soon after he was accused of encroaching on 28 acres of government land at Madurantakam-- and join forces with a long term plan of inheriting MGR’s mantle.

How do you solve a problem like Jaya?
But there are those who will say he is dreaming if he thinks he can dislodge Jayalitha, the inheritor of MGR’s legacy that has seen her ruling the state as CM twice between 1991-96 and 2001-2006.

Now that the elections have been called, the favourite past time among politicians especially is to figure out who’ll reach the goal post in the one-phase election scheduled for May 13. Will Karunanidhi’s DMK again come back resoundingly in a manner that his party will again be the tail that wags the dog? Last time he won 16 seats and stitched up a rainbow coalition with the PMK which won 5 seats, the CPI and CPM which won 2 seats each while the Congress bagged 10 seats. The AIADMK drew a blank. Will it be the AIADMK’s turn to come up trumps this time?

That the Congress has decided to stick with the DMK is another matter, but observers say that Jaya has betrayed her weakness by opening her door to the Congress, particularly when the writing on the wall was that the Congress is going to sink or swim with the DMK. As always with either Karunanidhi or Jayalalitha, it was at a wedding-- marking her 61st birthday on February 24 -- that she chose to make such a politically loaded statement.

"It is a season of marriages and political alliances too. A give and take attitude is necessary to make an alliance successful," she said. "As far as I know, the Congress wanted to continue its alliance with the DMK, hoping to win the elections. But they have failed to give a thought to the people who are seething with anger due to unprecedented violence, corruption and illegal activities in the DMK's rule. The people are also angry with the Congress for continuing to extend support to the DMK," she said.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

"I am going to focus on this during my campaign," says Karti Chidambaram, AICC member and son ofunion home minister P Chidambaram. Jaya’s jumping from one possible alliance-- she was an integral part of the third front till it came apart, then she led everyone to believe she would sail with the BJP even making nice with controversial, and possible later PM, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. Then out of the blue she turned 180 degrees to stitch up alliances with the CPI and CPM. And then, after focusing her vitriol on Congress high command Sonia Gandhi in 2004, she has invited them to be in her corner only to berebuffed. Uncharacteristically, Jaya made herself vulnerable going so far as to say that she considered "Indira Gandhi as my mother and she also showered affection on me." She got nostalgic about Rajiv Gandhi too saying that their relationship was one of mutual respect and friendship. But now that she has been told to take a hike, will Jaya now bash Sonia Gandhi some more? Watch this space.

Incidentally, Jaya’s stunning move made the CPI and CPM, who had divorced the Congress over the nuclear deal, uncomfortable. While CPM state secretary N Varadarajan betrayed his irritation going so far as to say he would consult his national leadership and take a decision-- as if his party had a choice -- CPI’s D Pandian showed equanimity. "She is just trying to disturb the DMK-led front. There are many ifs and buts in it and it is not going tohappen."

Whitewashing the truth

With the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections in force, the Chennai Corporation has started a cleaning process to erase all political graffiti from the walls. At any given tine, the Chennai landscape is replete with larger than life posters of politicos particularly the DMK chief Karunanidhi, his son Stalin, Jayalalitha, Vijayakanth and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi’s Thol Tirumavalavan. Ever since hoardings were ordered to be brought down by the courts, the only recourse politicians had was to political graffiti. Political parties did not spare the walls, pipelines, medians and even subways.
According to Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni, letters have gone out to all political parties, asking them to remove paintings on public walls. "We have also requested other departments to clear all advertisements by political parties on their properties."
Incidentally, the cost incurred by the corporation to clean up a wall is in inverse proportion to the leverage that leaders get. "It costs us Rs.10 to whitewash a square metre and if we were to paint a kilometre-long crash barrier, it would cost us Rs.2 lakh," says a corporation official. Residents are looking forward to get their compound walls back at least briefly. Despite the noise made by bodies like the Civic Exnora and residents association, defaced compound walls are a reality and so are politicians and their clout. "This (pre-election) is the only time we can get away with calling the shots as far as politicians are concerned and I intend to enjoy this privilege," says Malathi Vaidyanathan ofAnnanagar.

Honours for the prodigal son

The Cine Musicians Union felicitated A R Rehman on winning two Oscars at a well attended function on March 4 evening.