Jaya asks Cong to snap ties with DMK

We can align with any secular party: NCP.

Alliance politics got a new twist today when two important actors — All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — flexed their muscles to demand a better deal for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

While in Chennai, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa Jayaram counselled the Congress to leave the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and find new friends, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had an unpublicised meeting with Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray in New Delhi on Tuesday night. Pawar’s party denied this morning that there was any political content to the meeting.

“We have nothing to do with communal forces,” said NCP spokesman D P Tripathi before adding: “We have the option to align with any secular party.”

In Tamil Nadu politics, Jayalalithaa’s statement assumes significance in the light of the fact that the Congress is the force that is shoring up the DMK government in Tamil Nadu. Despite that, Jayalalithaa said: “No one can save DMK anymore. DMK’s chapter is over. But, if the Congress thinks that it can lift and rescue the DMK from the quicksand it has fallen into, it will also get caught and sink ...those who will come with us will gain and those who will not be with us will lose.” She said she was giving this suggestion to the Congress out of consideration for an old friendship.

Both the BJP and the Congress are viewing these developments as pressure tactics by their allies to extract more seats.

While the BJP contests 26 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena contests 22 seats in the state. According to a 2004 agreement, while the Congress contested 27 seats, NCP contested 21 seats in the state. However, now both NCP and Sena want equal share of seats from their allies.

A senior Sena leader, who is a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray, said, “We have decided to snap our ties with the BJP. An announcement to this effect will be made before March 1.” However, another Sena leader, who is also considered to be part of Thackeray Junior’s coterie, said, “Dialogue with Pawar is on but it is not yet decided whether to part ways with the BJP or not.”

When contacted, a senior BJP leader said, “We are in no hurry and ready to wait for Sena’s decision. We will neither plead with them to stay in alliance nor ask them to quit.”