Hard lesson at 91!

The very day M. Karunanidhi conceded 41 seats to the Congress and showed his generosity in allocating another 13 seats to other fringe partners, J. Jayalalithaa would have had a hearty laugh, convinced that her job had been made easy. True to her guess, the Congress fared abysmally in the elections and it is only the 33 seats that the Congress lost that did all the damage to the DMK considering the thin difference in the number of votes bagged by the two Dravidian parties. Mr Karunanidhi, who had all along been considered a Chanakya in poll calculations, has now handed over the title on a golden platter to Ms Jayalalithaa. This is indeed a hard lesson the otherwise shrewd Karunanidhi has learnt at the ripe age of 91.

Tharcius S. Fernando

Chennai

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