DMK to stay put with UPA Govt

CHENNAI: Political rationale appeared to rule over octogenarian DMK chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi’s emotion, as the high-level meeting of DMK leaders here on Friday decided to stay with the UPA government. For a party still nursing its wounds from a debilitating defeat in the assembly elections, the decision was not a major surprise, even if Karunanidhi continues to be pained over his daughter Kanimozhi’s imprisonment in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

The decision to continue with the UPA, notwithstanding the Congress’ anti-DMK diatribe, blaming it for the electoral debacles in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, indicated that Karunanidhi really had no option, but to maintain status quo. Jettisoning the alliance at this juncture would have thrown the party out of power both at the Centre and in Tamil Nadu—a prospect the party patriarch would not relish at all, given the fact that his arch-rival Jayalalithaa, now firmly ensconced in power in the southern state, has started gunning for him.

“This is no decision at all. He (Karunanidhi) has been unable to take a decision, and therefore he has allowed status quo to continue,” writer and political commentator Cho Ramaswamy told ET about the decision of the DMK leadership. “Different factions of the family are pulling him (Karunanidhi) in different directions,” he said.

The decision means DMK ministers MK Alagiri, SS Palanimanickam, Gandhiselvan, D Napolean, S Jagatrakshakan, and textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran will continue in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet. The party’s MP and former telecom minister, A Raja, is in jail, facing prosecution in the 2G spectrum allocation case along with Kanimozhi. It also means that Karunanidhi has been forced to continue his party’s alliance with the Congress, despite his recent comment that “bad friends will bring trouble”, apparently aimed at the Congress.

DMK has 18 Lok Sabha MPs, a crucial number for the stability of the UPA government, but is also shorn of perceived political power following its drubbing in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections where it ended with only 23 MLAs in the 234-member House.