Vijayakanth leaves Jayalalithaa's alliance

CHENNAI: When AIADMK and DMDK decided to hold hands during last year's assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, few had banked on their alliance to last long. Shortly after the two parties rode an anti-DMK wave to march into Fort St George here, DMDK proved pre-poll speculation right by turning into the main opposition party, with 29 seats.

The final veneer of any fraternity between the two parties unravelled on Wednesday, when the two engaged in a shouting match in the assembly to seal the divorce.

The development comes just a couple of days ahead of DMK's general council meeting scheduled for Friday, and may ignite a likelihood of AIADMK warming up to Congress.

Vijayakanth's DMDK - which has always banked on being an alternative to Tamil Nadu's entrenched political giants, AIADMK and DMK, cleared every shroud of doubt about his party's relations with AIADMK, with exchanges in the assembly. The AIADMK and DMDK had contested separately in the recent local body elections.

Vijayakanth asserted that Jayalalithaa would not have come to power without the help of his party, and Jayalalithaa returned the compliment in equal measure, saying, the alliance with DMDK happened because of associate parties in the front. "I regret doing that, feel ashamed about the decision," she said.

The development is no major adversity to the ruling AIADMK, which alone has 150 seats in the 234-member assembly. For chief minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram, this could be a starting point to bring more clarity into her government's position on diverse issues. In December, she had ousted long-time associate Sasikala and her clan from her Poes Garden residence.

"Today's heated exchanges in the state assembly are only a natural progression. It was very obvious that both parties would part ways after the assembly polls. DMDK is aware that in order to be the major opposition party, it cannot toe the line of the ruling party. Instead, DMDK has now made a tactical move towards the next parliamentary election," columnist and political commentator Gnani Sankaran told ET.