DMK, Congress sign pact, but tensions persist

IANS/Chennai

An artist carries a cut-out image of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at a workshop in Chennai yesterday

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Congress signed a pact yesterday to jointly fight the Tamil Nadu assembly election, a day after the state’s ruling party made a dramatic U-turn and let its ally contest from 63 of 234 seats.

DMK president and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who only last week called the Congress demand for 63 seats "unjustified,” signed the deal for his party. The Congress was represented by the party’s state chief K V Thangkabalu.

Speaking to reporters later, Thangkabalu said: "The Congress will be contesting in 63 seats in the April 13 election. The choice of constituencies will be decided by the five-member committee of each party.”

The chief minister did not address the media after the signing.

According to sources, the Congress will put up candidates in the 48 seats it contested in 2006. The remaining seats will be decided after mutual discussions.

Although the DMK and Congress have patched up, political analysts feel the strains in their relationship are unlikely to go away.

The run up to yesterday’s agreement saw a dramatic turn of events.

On Saturday, a peeved DMK withdrew its six ministers from the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and dumped the Congress in the state, ending a seven-year alliance.

DMK members celebrated the decision with firecrackers and sweets. And many Congress activists felt relieved to come out of what they felt were DMK’s clutches.

But the DMK capitulated on Tuesday after the Congress, which had propped up the Karunanidhi government since 2006, refused to budge from its claim for 63 seats.

The Congress demand was met with the DMK, the Pattali Makkal Katchi and the Indian Union Muslim League giving back one seat each from their own quotas.

Yesterday, PMK leader SRamadoss said: "Giving back a seat after it was allotted has not happened earlier. But we have done it in the interests of the coalition.”

He hoped that the DMK, PMK and Congress would now work together.

Political commentators and the opposition groups are not sure that will happen.

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) leader Panruti S Ramachandran said: "The bitterness will continue between the leaders and cadres of the two parties. They might have stitched the alliance but the scar will remain.”