Cong, ADMK close to pact; Pawar meets Jaya

Pawar said the two parties would work together but the modalities of seat-sharing were not discussed today. Pawar said he and Jayalalitha had held extensive talks on the political situation in the state. They had also discussed the issues to be highlighted in the poll campaign.

The talks were positive and encouraging, he said and added that he would visit Chennai again next week to continue his talks with Jayalalitha on the modalities of the alliance.

Pawar said he would report the details of his talks to party president Sonia Gandhi and senior colleagues before divulging them to the media.

Replying to a question, he said there was no divergent view in his party on the question of alliance with the AIADMK. He had met Jayalalitha as a representative of the Congress party, he added.

Asked whether the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), which voted against the Vajpayee government during the confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, would be part of the alliance, Pawar evaded a direct reply, but said he welcomed the return of all former Congressmen to the party.

The TMC, which fell out with its ally in the last two general elections, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), after they voted differently in the confidence motion, has stated that it would not be part of any front in which the corrupt AIADMK was a partner.

Pawar’s remark today implies that the Congress did not contemplate any electoral tie-up with the TMC, but would welcome its merger with the parent organisation.

Answering a question, Pawar said Jayalalitha had told him that some Left parties and others were holding talks with her on having an electoral understanding.

His party had no objection to this, the Congress leader said. Asked about a perceived anti-Jayalalitha wave in the state in the wake of the fall of the BJP-led government after the AIADMK withdrew support, Pawar said he did not agree with such an assumption.

However, the two parties joining hands would reverse any such wave if it existed, he added.

He recalled that in the last Lok Sabha election, predictions that the DMK-led alliance would sweep the poll had been proved wrong. When a reporter observed that the Congress party’s stability plank would not cut much ice in Tamil Nadu as Jayalalitha was seen as a government wrecker, Pawar said people all over the country wanted stability and were fed up with coalition politics.

His party would very much like to run the government on its own, he said answering another question.