Chennai: The AIADMK that broke away from the BJP in September last year is yet to find new allies to fight the coming Lok Sabha polls hand in hand while the BJP, too, has not managed to get a firm commitment from any of its old allies, making the coalition line ups across the political spectrum look a bit hazy now.
Though the DMK alliance looks to be intact at the surface, there is reportedly some turbulence beneath the surface over seat-sharing. While the party had only spoken to the Congress on seat-sharing at a very primary level, misunderstandings had reportedly cropped up as the Congress leaders wanted more constituencies to contest from now when the DMK was keen on cutting them down.
Whether the instability of the INDIA coalition at the national level has an impact in the State politics or not, the DMK may find the Congress to be a hard nut to crack because both sides are likely to stand firm on seat sharing and seat allocations.
Having been in the seat of power from the past three years, the DMK is likely to drive a hard bargain with its allies and that could lead to a change in the political alignment. Since the Congress and the two Communist parties managed to send a considerable number of MPs in 2014 from Tamil Nadu, they might insist on at least getting the same numbers now, which the DMK might not agree to.
Since the DMK is expecting more parties to join hands with it like Kamal Hassan’s Makkal Neethi Maiam for the elections, it would expect its present allies to settle down for lower number of seats. But now with the AIADMK waiting in the wings to take in a few allies, a hard bargaining might cause cracks in the present coalition.
In fact, the AIADMK is said to be waiting in the wings for some parties to break ties with the DMK and join its alliance. Its erstwhile ally, the PMK, too, might not continue the tie-up as informal behind-the-scenes seat-sharing talks had seemingly run into trouble, while other smaller parties that were in the alliance are in a dilemma.
Most of the parties feel that the alliance without the AIADMK might not help them garner votes, while the BJP, being a big party, could help them in other ways. So they are in a Catch-22 situation, not knowing whether to swing towards the BJP or the AIADMK.
The only small party that seemed to be talking to all the fronts is the DMDK. After seeing the turnout at the funeral of DMDK founder Vijaykanth, all the top parties would like to align with it hoping it might help them electorally.
But still all the parties are going about their own ways, attacking each other through meetings and statements now. BJP State President K Annamalai is planning a grand show to mark the conclusion of his yatra at Palladam in Tiruppur district but the alliance talks are likely to be taken care of by the party high command.
