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TMC joins hands with old foe AIADMK

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

In a crucial decision that deviates from the very logic behind its formation four years back, the Tamil Maanila Congress - one time ally of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazgham in Tamil Nadu - has declared its decision to back the rival All India Anna DMK in the by-election to three assembly seats next month.

"The decision will consolidate anti-incumbency votes. People are angry with the DMK's anti-people policies," TMC chief, G K Moopanar, told waiting newsmen as he emerged from a meeting with his allies today.

Though party sources indicated that the decision held good only for the by-elections, continuing the alliance for the next year's assembly polls will only be an unavoidable corollary.

The TMC decision will give an advantage to the AIADMK in the Nellikuppam assembly segment. However, the same may not be true about Tiruchi II and Arantangi assembly segments - the other two seats going to the polls next month.

"The real advantage will be in the future, when the TMC votes in the Lok Sabha polls give an edge to the AIADMK-Congress combine in about 60 assembly segments," said a TMC legislator. He believes that this in turn will ensure the victory of TMC legislators, who at this stage number 39.

Initially, the TMC had decided to help the AIADMK indirectly by refusing to field its candidate in any of the three constituencies on the specious plea that it had not contested them in the ruling DMK's company in 1996. But the party's hand was forced today by its allies - the Dalit Panthers, the Republican Party of India, the Janata Dal-S and the Indian Union Muslim League. They all preferred a direct tie-up with the AIADMK.

But with its shaking of hands with the AIADMK, the TMC may have lost out its raison detre.

Moopanar and others had split from the Congress on the issue of the latter's support to the ruling AIADMK. Now with the TMC supporting the Congress at the national level and the AIADMK at the state level, it's only a matter of time before the TMC formally merges with its parent body.

An occasion for this may soon be provided by the evolving situation in Pondicherry, where the TMC has pulled out of the DMK-led coalition, and has been waiting for the Congress to join in to form an alternative government. With the party now accepting the AIADMK in TN, the stage may have been cleared in Pondicherry for a Congress-led coalition government, with the TMC, AIADMK and the CPI as other partners.

However, the TMC would be in for a lot of embarrassment if even one of the pending corruption cases against Jayalalitha goes against her. That might then give the BJP an edge.

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