TMC in no mood to relent on power-sharing

By Radha Venkatesan

CHENNAI, MAY 20. The AIADMK may have deflated the TMC's `coalition' balloon, but the party is not willing to abandon the aspiration of power-sharing as yet.

The TMC president, Mr. G. K. Moopanar's recent remark that power sharing can be discussed at the time of elections is a clear indication to the AIADMK that the party is in no mood to jettison its ``crucial demand''. And, along with seat-sharing, power sharing too would become a bargaining point in the Opposition camp.

Though the AIADMK general secretary, Ms. J. Jayalalitha, has said an unequivocal `no' to sharing power with its allies, TMC sources say the party president ``is in touch'' with the AIADMK leadership on the ``coalition issue''. Having failed in its Third Front experiment in the Parliamentary elections last year, only to end up supporting the AIADMK in the subsequent by-elections to three Assembly constituencies, the TMC now wants to make the best out of what it calls the ``political imponderables'' in the AIADMK.

The recent rumblings in the AIADMK following the wholesale revamp of the party and the fall-out of the key corruption cases against the AIADMK leadership hurtling towards a finale in the special courts in Chennai, the TMC feels, would give it a better bargaining power at the time of the elections.

Particularly, the party is keenly awaiting the verdict from the Special Courts. If the AIADMK leadership emerges politically stronger out of the ``imponderables'', then the TMC may swallow the coalition proposal, without much fuss.

If it does not, the TMC hopes, it would have more space to manoeuvre its way to the power centre.

The TMC ambition is not limited to sharing power, but extends to leading the Opposition front. Party seniors say ``the imponderables'' could well propel a TMC-led alternative front.

Curiously, an article in the latest issue of the TMC journal `Navasakthi' hits out at the DMK and the AIADMK for not subscribing to coalition concept in the State. ``To say `help us capture power, but we won't share power' is tantamount to undermining the dignity of the alliance parties and vulgarising their popularity among the public.''

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Section  : Southern States
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