The Hindu : New equations likely for Sattankulam bypoll

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 06, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

New equations likely for Sattankulam bypoll

By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau

CHENNAI JAN. 5. With the byelection to the Sattankulam Assembly seat due in February-end or early March, political parties in Tamil Nadu have begun to work out alliance strategies, setting the stage for new equations.

Even as a desperate patch-up effort is under way to salvage the alliance between ideologically antagonistic NDA constituents, the DMK and the BJP, a new "secular front" is in the making with the Congress, along with Left and Dalit parties, planning a public meeting at Sattankulam on January 8, virtually to kick off their byelection campaign. Parties representing the minorities, INL, the IUML and the TMMK too would take part.

The ruling AIADMK will go it alone, but if truce initiatives in the NDA fail in the next few weeks, it will have a covert ally in the BJP. As of now, the BJP wants to contest in the Nadar-dominant constituency and the DMK too has decided to throw its hat in the ring.

A three-member committee of the State BJP, it is learnt, has asked the party high command to put up a candidate in the constituency, where it lost only by about 5,000 votes in the company of the DMK in the 2001 election. Even if the party fights alone, it will poll a considerable number of Hindu Nadar votes there, says a senior BJP functionary.

The State Congress, which plans to field a candidate in Sattankulam, (the seat fell vacant following the death of the erstwhile TMC MLA, Mani Nadar) has planned a public meeting to mark Kamaraj's birth centenary in the constituency, to "feel the pulse" of the votes, especially Christian Nadars, who comprise a major chunk of the electorate.

Though the Congress and the Communist parties have been openly asking the DMK to quit the NDA, they do not expect any dramatic change in the contest for the Sattankulam seat. But what they do hope is that the DMK will pull out of the race to ensure that the secular vote is not divided between the two.

"The ideal situation for us would be a three-cornered contest in which AIADMK, the BJP and the Congress are pitted against each other. In such a scenario, much to the advantage of the Congress, the Hindutva votes will be split between the AIADMK and the BJP," says a senior Congress leader. Indeed, sources say, Congress leaders have sent feelers to the DMK functionaries.

Considering that the State BJP pulled out of the Vaniyambadi byelection, in covert support of the Hindu candidate of the ruling AIADMK, the DMK might weigh all available options before taking a decision. But, the posturing and the war of words between the DMK and the BJP seems to have ended with both parties refraining from making uncharitable comments against each other. A reflection of this is likely to be found in the byelections, which though not too important, would be an opportunity for the DMK to test where the BJP loyalties lie. The DMK, which had initially wanted the BJP to oppose the AIADMK wholeheartedly, will now be content if the BJP brings to a halt the anti-DMK rhetoric and the open support for the AIADMK.

The CPI, meanwhile, believes it is the right time for the DMK to sever its ties with the BJP. The State secretary, R. Nallakannu, told presspersons in Salem today that only a complete break with the NDA would be in keeping with the DMK's proclaimed objectives.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

New equations likely for Sattankulam bypoll

MEA grants approval

`More than gadgets, tactics essential to nab Veerappan'

BSNL asked to compensate for wrongful disconnection

Over 70 lakh children given polio vaccine

Despite rain, cultivation drops in Dindigul dt.

Urn throwing light on ancient Tamils unearthed

Only crop loss led to farmer's suicide: CPI

IT development will not be restricted to Chennai: Ponnaiyan