Chennai: DMDK leader Vijayakanth is in a catch-22 situation. DMK president M. Karunanidhi has literally cast him bait by announcing party propaganda secretary ‘Tiruchy’ Siva as candidate for (the sixth seat) Rajya Sabha polls to be held on February 7.
Vijayakanth who fled to Malaysia in a hush-hush manner amid rumours of him tilting saffron way has fewer options. Either he has to bite the bullet and support Siva or take DMK support for his candidate, thereby concretising his alliance with the DMK for the Lok Sabha polls, perhaps for a future quid pro quo or dare the DMK by banking on the five votes of the Congress, which is also keen on warming up to the DMK to overcome a rout in LS poll.
Though Vijayakanth could abstain from the RS polls and keep all guessing for the Lok Sabha election, DMK is confident that the actor-politician would not risk throwing in the towel during election season.
The DMK has 26 assured votes, including two MMK and the lone Puthiya Tamizhagam vote, whereas the DMDK has only 21 votes after its think tank Panruti S. Ramachandran’s recent resignation. The abstention of the PMK (3 votes), which is closing ranks with the BJP, is an easy guess. Poll pundits predict an arithmetic edge for the DMK.
Assuming that the DMK-DMDK are deadlocked at 26 votes (Congress should vote for DMDK) after counting the first preference votes, the second preference votes would seal the victory for the DMK as the seven rebel DMDK MLAs who act at the behest of the AIADMK are unlikely to pick Vijayakanth’s man as their second preference under any circumstance.
Unusual silence of an otherwise articulate ‘Tiruchy’ Siva who chose on Saturday to file nomination on January 21 was an indicator that the DMK was not averse to withdrawing its candidate should Captain accept the poll alliance.
