Dravidian old fox remains Isolated

Karunanidhi fails to find support among political parties in his bid to cash in on CM’s health issue
DMK president  Muthuvel Karunanidhi
DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: Nonagenarian DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhi’s antipathy towards ailing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has isolated him among political parties across ideologies.His tasteless remarks to declare the state of the CM’s health has come back to bite him when he realised that national leaders have expressed their solidarity with Jayalalithaa. Karunanidhi has been forced to engage in a conciliatory exercise by sending Stalin and now his wife to call on the CM. Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi is expected to be the next visitor. But the other political leaders do not seem to be relying on the old fox’s new found courtship.    

                                         
These are trying times for the ruling AIADMK with party supremo Jayalalithaa under treatment in hospital. And the DMK patriarch sensed an opportunistic change to take advantage of the situation. Yet, it has failed to gain any traction in the political spectrum with the DMK remaining isolated. Even its captive ally, the Congress, refuses to play ball.


Soon after Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation, the DMK raised the demand for an interim Chief Minister. However, none in the Opposition ranks lent suppport, barring the OBC Vanniyar-dominant PMK of S Ramadoss. While Vaiko of MDMK called on the Governor opposing the need for an interim CM, the Left parties and VCK of Thol Thirumavalavan as well as others made it clear that they were not for it. Leaving the DMK stunned, Congress crown prince Rahul Gandhi took time off his hectic schedule in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh to drop in at the hospital where Jayalalithaa is undergoing treatment. “We support Jayalalithaa,” he said and wished her speedy recovery.


Interestingly, he had never visited Karunanidhi during his visits to the state even when the DMK chief was hospitalised for a surgery at the height of the UPA dispensation. Undeterred by the isolation, Karunanidhi then questioned the allocation of Jayalalithaa’s portfolios to Panneerselvam. According to him, the Governor owed an explanation as to how Jayalalithaa has adviced to this effect. This time too, it was only the PMK which echoed him while others welcomed it as a ‘practical arrangement’.


Why this isolation? “Opposition parties are still wary of getting closer to the DMK, prefering to wait and watch the situation to unfold rather than throwing their weight behind the Karunanidhi clan. Also, it is only a few months since the Assembly polls and the AIADMK is intact,” explains analyst P Ramajayam of the Centre for Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Bharathidasan University, Trichy.


“Opposition to the DMK from among the Opposition parties is so strong, making it difficult for the party and its leadership to have any political space to manoeuvre,” he said.

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