Tamil Nadu alliance: Talks between BJP, AIADMK are on

Chennai: After several rounds of informal talks over the last few weeks for an alliance in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and the AIADMK began serious negotiations with Union minister Piyush Goyal holding discussions with senior AIADMK ministers Thangamani and SP Velumani for about three hours Thursday night.

Goyal, who handles the BJP affairs in Tamil Nadu, flew in by a chartered flight and left late night after the tough bargaining with the two AIADMK seniors. He will be back in a day or two, say BJP sources, insisting that the alliance talks “are only at a very preliminary stage” and the final picture will emerge “around the time that the Election Commission announces the polls”.  

Sources say that while the AIADMK has no issue conceding the number of seats sought by the BJP — eight is the number being mentioned — but the problem is with the constituencies being demanded by the BJP as most of the saffron favourites fall in the Kongu region where the AIADMK has been strong from the MGR days.

No cohesion or mutual trust between rivals: Min
“Piyush Goyal had a wish-list with him, prepared in consultation with the state BJP unit and of course the other agencies reporting on ground situation”, said a source.

The DMK-Congress camp has been taunting the ruling rivals over their alliance efforts for quite some time now; the oft-repeated charge is that the BJP is bulldozing the AIADMK into accepting its alliance and that too on its terms by using strong arm methods such as CBI/IT raids on the Tamil Nadu Ministers and senior bureaucrats. And that the AIADMK is yielding easily because of the multitude of skeletons in its cupboard.

“How else would you be able to explain the AIADMK submitting itself so meekly to this alliance with the BJP that has insignificant presence in this state? This alliance will be a disaster”, said ‘Tiruchy’ Velusamy, a prominent Congress leader.
Apart from such taunting from the rival camp and the ‘bullying’ from the north, the AIADMK must also deal with shrill voices of strong dissent from a few seniors opposing the alliance with the BJP. Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai accused the BJP of doing precious little for the people of Tamil Nadu - even during the critical times such as the Gaja cyclone and the Cauvery/Mekedatu tussle with Karnataka - and concluded that poll-alliance with the BJP would be a burden too heavy for the AIADMK.

Former AIADMK minister C Ponnaiyan, a stalwart of the MGR era, has declared that the party cadres would never accept holding of saffron hands at the elections. While some party seniors are trying to laugh away these ‘discordant voices’ and even insisting they demonstrate inner-party democracy, critics are quick to point out that such internal democracy has popped up only after the demise of Jayalalithaa in December 2016.

“It is true we are unable to question, leave alone discipline, these senior leaders when they voice their own views on such sensitive issues as poll alliance”, said a senior minister, adding, “We would never open our mouth when Amma was there, but now everybody is a leader”.

And that brings to the fore the big worry for this team even before the final poll pact gets inked - how disciplined would be the election work, from the top down to the booth level. “Things will get sorted out when the poll time gets closer. All issues will be sorted out because the only focus would then be, for all of us right down to the booth level worker, to trounce the DMK-Congress alliance”, said the senior minister, exuding confidence. “Besides, the rivals are in a worse situation when it comes to lack of cohesion and mutual trust”, he added.