BJP’s efforts to cleanse the AIADMK will not work
Expelling the ‘ Mannargudi Mafia’ from the party will make no difference as its leaders are all cut from the same cloth
The post-Jayalalithaa AIADMK has evidently become the BJP’s Trojan horse. For all her faults, in 1988-89, the late leader kept the BJP leadership and thegovernment on tenterhooks and even brought the BJP government down. More recently, despite all her legal difficulties she stooduptothe Centre opposing many of its schemes. Today, the AIADMK government led by Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and his deputy O Panneerselvam (OPS) is on life support from the BJP. Consequently, the AIADMK has become an annex of the BJP.
OPS, E PS and eve nS a si kala Na tara jan are no Jayalalithaa. On January 3, Venkaiah Naidu, then information minister, said in a circumlocutory fashion that Jayalalithaa’s death had opened up possibilities for the BJP in Tamil Nadu. Of course he was talking about his party as an alternative in the Dravidian heartland.
In the BJP’s calculation — an AIADMK sans the Sasikala clan, or Mannargudi Mafia, is a cleansed AIADMK, good for piggy backing on. But a post-Tihar Dinakaran spoilt their plans as he chose to fight back.
He termed the two factions as traitors who wanted to run away with whatever they could get. More ingeniously, he did not take on the BJP. He also conjured up an impressive rally in Melur, Madurai. But what is most impressive is that while Dinakaran wishes to curry favour with the BJP, he is unwilling to yield space to the BJP’s plans to remove his aunt and family from the political scene.
On August 22,19 ML As owing allegiance to Dinakaran met governor C Vidyasagar Rao and said they were withdrawing support to EPS. Rao has rejected the DMK-led Opposition’s demands to order a floor test stating beguilingly that the 19 MLAs are still with the party. On September 6, fisheries minister D Jayakumar said 109 MLAs attended a meeting chaired by EPS. This is eight short of the 117 MLAs needed for a majority. Unfortunately, as the tussle for power continues governance has become a casualty.
The BJP can be expected to save the EPS government, but, there are some imponderables: How will it help the merged factions overcome the legal and extra legal hurdles thrown up by Dinakaran, not to mention the knots that the EPS faction had tied itself into by having supported Sasikala before the EC?
And assuming that Dinakaran goes down fighting or otherwise, will the AIADMK then become clean? It is clear to everyone except the BJP that OPS, EPS and Sasikala-Dinakaran are all cut from the same cloth. The greed for political gain has blinded the BJP. The AIADMK could serve as its Trojan horse but Tamil Nadu is no Troy.