Politics in Tamil Nadu took a new turn as the Navarathri festivities concluded on Sunday. The Congress which was the cynosure of all eyes set the record straight by an outright rejection of the invitation extended by film actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan who had announced last week that he was ready for an electoral alliance with the Grand Old Party if the latter dissociates itself from the DMK.
While speaking to a Tamil TV news channel, Haasan had said he was game for a tie-up with the Congress provided it comes out of the alliance with the DMK. Speaking to reporters at Chennai on Saturday, S Thiruvanakarassar, president Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, thanked the actor for his overture to his party. “It is well and good that he is in favour of an alliance with the Congress. But a condition from any new political party that we should leave the DMK first is unacceptable as we are part of the DMK alliance,” said the TNCC boss.
Thirunavakarassar put an end to all speculation of the Congress dumping the DMK in favour of the new oufit Makkal Neethi Maiam (People’s Centre for Justice) launched by Haasan. The pre-condition put forward by Haasan to the Congress for a tie-up had surprised many as the DMK-Congress alliance is a time tested partnership though there were some temporary misunderstandings between the two during 2013-2014 which were resolved at the intervention of the Congress High Command and late M Karunanidhi, the DMK patriarch by 2015.
T Ramakrishnan, leading political commentator in the State said he had enough reasons to believe that Haasan could be a “decoy” set up by the BJP to weaken the DMK-Congress alliance . “It is certain that the DMK would never have any pre-poll alliance with the BJP though the latter is probing all possibilities for making an entry to Tamil Nadu. The BJP leadership know that it is difficult to beat the DMK-Congress combination. Hence they may be trying to wean the Congress away from the Dravidian major and make it weak,” said Ramakrishnan.
What stands out is that Haasan, in spite of launching his party in February 2018, has not announced any policies and programmes of the party. Though he announced the names of office bearers, details about them are kept as secret. By Saturday, Rajinikanth, who had declared his political dreams on the New Year eve, declared that 90 per cent works connected with the launching of his political party were over and he would soon announce the names and details of the organisation.
Sources close to Rajinikanth said that he has even set up full- fledged booth committees in 200 assembly constituencies out of the total 234. The BJP is yet to have such committees in even 100 constituencies in the State, according to a senior BJP leader.
The CPI(M) and the VCK, potential allies of the DMK, too rejected Kamal Haasan’s move to wean away the Congress from th DMK. While Thirumavalavan, leader of the VCK declared that he would always remain with the DMK, the CPI(M) secretary K Balakrishnan said his party would soon launch a joint campaign with the DMK against the BJP. As Kamal Haasan’s political dreams suffered a set back, he is likely to get more involved in his pet movie projects, like sequels for Indian and Thevar Magan. But the possibilities of Rajinikanth emerging as an alternative to the DMK and the AIADMK got brightened as Haasan was cold shouldered by the Congress and the DMK.
“Out of the two, Rajinikanth talks sensible things and it is an advantage,” said a political commentator.
