New Delhi: MDMK leader Vaiko joined hands with J Jayalalithaa's AIADMK and will get 35 seats in the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
It is interesting that Vaiko has decided to join hands with Jayalalithaa, despite the AIADMK incarcerating him for his alleged links with the LTTE.
But as Jayalalitha says, there are no permanent enemies or friends in politics.
Vaiko was with the DMK-led alliance and had been bargaining with the DMK for over two months now.
From being bitter enemies to being poll allies, now the alliance between Jayalalithaa and Vaiko in Tamil Nadu clearly illustrates that in politics there are no permanent enemies.
"This will be a final stage in the political history of Tamil Nadu," says Vaiko.
After the meeting with Vaiko, Jayalalithaa says, "Today we are meeting here on a positive note, we will discuss on the positive matter, we will make only positive statements. We do not believe in turning back and looking at the past. We believe looking into the future."
If Vaiko goes with Jayalalitha, how does it impact state politics? Election results in Tamil Nadu have swung from one extreme to other for many years now.
In the 2001 Assembly elections, the AIADMK alliance won 195 out of 234 seats, with Jayalalithaa's party alone capturing 132.
The DMK alliance could only manage 37 seats, while the MDMK didn't win even one seat.
But the pendulum swung the other way in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when the DMK-led alliance, which included the MDMK, won all 39 seats.
The DMK won 16 seats and the MDMK 4, while the AIADMK drew a blank.
By-elections were held in Kancheepuram and Gummidipoondi in 2005, and this time it was the turn of the AIADMK again. It single-handedly defeated the seven-party alliance led by the DMK and won both seats.
On Friday, DMK president M Karunanidhi offered 22 seats to Vaiko. Dissatisfied with the DMK's offer, Vaiko decided to quit the DMK-led alliance.
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Karunanidhi refused to attach much significance to the shifting of the cutout of MDMK leader Vaiko at the DMK conference in Tiruchirapalli.
At a closed-door meeting, there was a strident demand by the council to keep the MDMK out of the alliance. Members were unanimous in their condemnation of Vaiko for dithering on the issue of alliance, party sources said.
Vaiko’s political journey
V Gopalaswamy or Vaiko's political journey exemplifies the Churchillian axiom that their are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but only permanent interest in politics.
When he broke away from his political mentor Karunanidhi in 1993 many thought that he would fade away in the caste-ridden politics of Tamil Nadu.
Karunanidhi had ambitious plans for his son Stalin, another self-styled DMK firebrand. But Vaiko did not take long to hit back. In 1994 he formed the MDMK.
But in 1996 his party failed to win a single seat. And in 1998 Vaiko signed a pact with the BJP and AIADMK and won four seats, but Jayalalithaa abruptly pulled out of the NDA triggering some aftershocks on the state politics.
Vaiko had grown close to the NDA leaders and was convinced to join hands with DMK. His party managed to get the crucial four seats in the general elections in 1999.
But Vaiko's marriage of convenience with DMK failed at the eleventh hour in the 2001 polls - MDMK won no seats.
Despite electoral whitewash, MDMK kept the heat on Jayalalithaa. On July 12th 2002, Vaiko became the first Member of Parliament and chief of a registered political party in the country to be detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act when he was arrested on his arrival at the Chennai airport. Vaiko dubbed the detention as 'political vendetta' and yet another attempt to muzzle the political opposition.
He even dubbed Jayalalitha a fascist. The verbal crossfire exchanged may still ring horror in people’s minds, but when it's election time all that matters is just votes and seats.
With Agency inputs
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