No curtains yet for BJP

However, Ramamurthy gave an indication that for the moment at least the Front was unlikely to precipitate the issue. To a question on whether the Front had decided to pull out its Ministers from the Union Cabinet, Ramamurthy said, “That does not arise now.” Asked what he meant by “appropriate time”, Ramamurthy said, “She (Jayalalitha) will decide.”

To a question on whether the allies would be meeting again shortly, Ramamurthy replied, “If necessary, we will meetagain.” When a scribe brought up the Cauvery issue, he quipped in a jocular vein, “Cauvery is still flowing.” He, however, said that the AIADMK and its allies had totally rejected the new Cauvery accord arrived at in New Delhi last week.

Going by the briefing, it appeared that the Vajpayee government had got a breather for the time being as a decision was only deferred.

Leaders of the front — PMK leader S Ramadoss, MDMK leader Vaiko, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and AIADMK presidium chairman V R Nedunchezhian were present at the briefing in front of the residence.

Union Personnel Minister M R Janarthanam, who drove out soon after, refused to talk to the waiting scribes. However, Union Law Minister M Thambidurai who followed him, merely said, “The leader (Jayalalitha) has been briefed and a decision will be taken at the appropriate time.” When a scribe told him his reply was `vague’, the Minister shot back, “It is a vague situation.”

Leader of the AIADMK group in Parliament,Sedapatti R Muthiah, who also attended the meeting, maintained, “whatever the alliance leaders said holds good.”

The crucial meeting heightened media interest with even Delhi-based correspondents of well-known American papers descending on the Poes Garden.

A large number of party men and curious passers-by stayed put outside Jayalalitha’s house, when the meeting was on and refused to leave even after the formal briefing by Ramamurthy.

The combine had rejected the new Cauvery accord and at a media conference convened by Jayalalitha earlier this week, the AIADMK supremo had threatened to `review’ her party’s support to the BJP-led Government if it failed to notify the original draft scheme.

There has been much speculation regarding the possibility of the AIADMK supremo announcing withdrawal of the AIADMK’s support to the BJP-led Government or at least the resignations of her Ministers after the Centre ignored her threat and notified the revised draft scheme on the Cauvery issue on Aug 11.

Today’smeeting was preceded by two rounds of talks between Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s emissaries Defence Minister George Fernades and senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan and Jayalalitha yesterday to avert the crisis.

Significantly, Ramamurthy and Ramadoss had met Vajpayee last evening before arriving here. It was not known whether they carried any message from the prime minister to Jayalalitha.

Front leaders decided not to leak any details of the deliberations to the media after the formal briefing and media persons who thronged Ramamurthy’s Shastri Nagar residence were told that he had nothing more to add.

Meanwhile, two top Congress leaders, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Janardhan Reddy and former Union minister Jagdish Tytler, arrived in the city, strengthening speculation that they were here to give an assurance to Jayalalitha about an alternative dispensation at the Centre.

Reddy told a private television channel here that the Congress would not not shirk its responsibility if it was calledupon to form a government.