CHENNAI: A day after keeping the whole of Tamil Nadu in a state of bewilderment by exploring an unusual move to align with each other to deny TVK chief C Joseph Vijay from forming the next government, the DMK and the AIADMK are remaining silent, leaving observers and even allies confused.
The rumour about the two Dravidian parties, bitter rivals since late leader MG Ramachandran launched the AIADMK in 1972, joining forces for the singular objective of thwarting Vijay, has been running since Tuesday.
After it grew stronger on Wednesday, multiple sources, including leaders from the AIADMK, the police, and others, confirmed that discussions were indeed going on within the parties, while other sources claimed that talks were on between leaders from the two parties at a star hotel in Chennai.
Sources from AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s inner circle claimed that the feelers had come from the DMK, offering to support the party to form the next government to be led by Palaniswami as the chief minister. At the meeting held at the party headquarters on Wednesday night, the winning candidates were instructed to stay put in Chennai for the next three days.
Despite multiple attempts, no leader from the DMK was ready to comment on the purported plan – either to confirm or to deny it.
When DT Next reached out to SPA allies, several leaders said the DMK leadership was driven to fury by the Congress’s decision to exit the alliance and offer support to Vijay in return for two cabinet positions. This appears to have prompted the party to go to the extent of offering support to Palaniswami as the next chief minister, alliance leaders said.
Despite facing a situation where the party’s ideology and credibility were under question over the power move, the DMK and its leaders maintained a studied silence, which not only fuelled the rumour further, but also lent credence to it.
Late in the day, one news report quoted an unnamed DMK leader saying that it was the AIADMK that sent feelers to explore the plan. Then came another report quoting MK Stalin stating that his party was willing to give Vijay and TVK six months to rule without any hindrance and then take a decision.
However, the story of DMK-AIADMK aligning had a life of its own by then, and the second-rung DMK leaders’ social media comments stating that a big news was in store did not help. The question in everyone’s mind is, if it was indeed a malicious rumour as a section of party faithful vociferously maintained, why did the leadership not come out with a public statement denying it? Why did the party leaders, who are adept at the social media game, maintain silence?
Meanwhile, latest reports say that the meeting that Stalin has convened with alliance leaders from the VCK, CPM, CPI, and IUML on Thursday was coming in the backdrop of persistent push by the DMK’s second-rung leaders to form an alliance with the AIADMK – thus adding another confirmation, albeit indirectly, that the idea is still being explored despite Stalin himself denying it.