Will DMK help Manmohan Singh get re-elected to RS?

The tenure of Manmohan Singh, who was elected to the Upper House from Assam ends in a few weeks. With the Congress party lacking required numbers in the north eastern state and it not having immediate opportunity to send anyone to the Upper House from any other state now, it has no other go but to seek favours from the DMK, if it were keen on retaining the space of Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha. Significantly, the 101-MLA strong DMK has the requisite numbers to send at least one person to RS in about a month, thanks to Thoothukudi MP-elect Kanimozhi, who now has no need to secure another six-year-term in the Rajya Sabha after the emphatic victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

Kanimozhi’s Rajya Sabha term ends in June. Ideally, the Congress party should have little trouble in asking the DMK to return the favour, for the women’s wing secretary of the Dravidian party was sent to the Upper House for the second time in June 2013 only with the support of the Congress party. The election happened a little over three months after the two parties broke their nine-year partnership in the last year of the UPA-II tenure in March 2013. In the same vein, there should not be a great deal of heartburn to help Manmohan Singh, who, in fact, was among the first to congratulate DMK president MK Stalin after the near sweep last week.

However, the only deterrent to the Congress currying favour with the DMK would be the delay in recovering from the shock defeat in a consecutive Parliamentary election and the promises the Dravidian ally has made to its other friends. 

The DMK has promised a Rajya Sabha nomination to Vaiko whose MDMK was restricted to one seat during seat allocation a little over a month ago. “Indeed, we don’t have the numbers in Assam. We may approach the DMK to send him (MMS) to Rajya Sabha. But it is too early, we are yet to recover from the defeat. Probably, in a couple of weeks, our leadership might contact the DMK,” said a Congress leader requesting anonymity, before conceding that the DMK has promised to honour Vaiko as well.  

“We still have time to ponder over Manmohan Singh’s re-nomination. We have not approached the DMK as of now. AICC leadership might contact Stalin next month,” a highly placed state Congress leader said. Meanwhile, senior DMK sources in the know revealed that the leadership had earlier planned to send its labour wing secretary Shanmugam to the Upper House.

“We have made a promise to Vaiko. LPF leader Shanmugam is fancying his chances. Nonetheless, we cannot rule out the possibility of the leadership giving priority to Manmohan Singh if the Congress high command personally approaches Stalin,” said a DMK source. Significantly, the issue of Congress approaching DMK and the latter declining the request were doing the rounds even a couple of months ago, but the issue was put to rest then. Will the DMK return the favour or snub a weak Congress is a million-dollar question that begs an answer from Stalin.