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Journalism of Courage
THE comprehensive defeat of the Opposition in the three Assembly by-elections should be a matter of concern more to the DMK than to most others, what with an unforgiving Jayalalithaa hot on its heels. A better performance in the by-polls, say a victory in Saidapet and closer finishes in Vaniyambadi and Achararapakkam, could have sent some message to the state government 8212; that the electorate are not amused by the AIADMK8217;s conduct in power in the last one year.
But it was not to be, despite the heavy budget impositions, the equivocations on Gujarat and the muscle-flexing at the Opposition and the media. Of course, there is that general voter psychology of opting for the party in power in a by-election, in the hope that a ruling party MLA could bring in some goodies for the constituency. And there are some constituency-specific factors too. Still losing by margins of more than ten thousand in all the three constituencies should be a bit too galling for the DMK, even though it contested only in two and supported the PMK in the third.
Vexed with the game between the BJP and the AIADMK, the ageing DMK chief is known to have remarked in private: 8216;8216;We can go back to our old alliance with the Left parties. We can still make a fight of it, maybe our image also would go up that way8230;8217;8217; But he is in no hurry to break with the BJP, he would rather wait to be kicked out of the NDA, it seems, for reasons discussed endlessly in the media.
That apart, Karunanidhi should be worried that his son Stalin is yet to fashion himself as a leader in his own right. One party leader who could have won some popular approval, Vaiko, was eased out long ago. In its eagerness to placate the PMK, as also its own traditional constituency of the intermediate castes, the DMK silently gave marching orders to two important Dalit outfits, the Dalit Panthers of India and the Pudhiya Thamizhakam, during the last local body elections. The resulting loss of the Dalit votes was not compensated by any accretion from other segments. Maybe Karunanidhi should give serious thought to such problems in the days to come. He has bounced back in the past. Maybe he will still.
In the case of Ramadoss, he has no other option but to try and put together the old coalition of Dalits, OBCs and minorities if he wants to remain relevant. The BJP8217;s cockiness too has taken a beating. While its support did not mean much for the PMK in Acharapakkam, it did not factor at all in Vaniyambadi. And worse, in Saidapet, despite its aggressive support to the MDMK, the latter8217;s vote-share declined drastically. Vaiko8217;s man had polled nearly 6,000 votes last year when the MDMK went it alone. This time, with BJP support, the same candidate garnered hardly 2,000 votes. Ten years since he founded the party, Vaiko has not been able to win a single Assembly seat on his own. His utility is that of a drum-beater of the Sangh Parivar in a Dravidian polity, but maintaining a separate establishment could be a costly exercise. At some point of time, the BJP could suggest to him that he wind up the show and join it instead, a la another Jayalalithaa-critic, S. Thirunavukkarasu.
