Same members but more parties

By R. K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, APRIL. 5. The number of parties in the Chennai Corporation council has `increased' lately, though the number of councillors remains the same.

This is due to recent upheavals in some political parties in the State and subsequent splinter groups.

Two new outfits have come up over the past fortnight after the rift in the TMC. One group says it is with Mr. Chidambaram's TMC Democratic Forum while the other - a single man out-fit - owes allegiance to Mr. Haroon's Tamizahaga Muslim Aiykiya Jamaath.

An earlier splinter group of the TMC had `travelled ' through the Congress(I) and recently positioned itself in the AIADMK.

Significantly, there has been no `defections' from the ruling DMK party and insiders attribute this to the Mayor, Mr. M. K. Stalin's ability even while keeping his party councillors in good humour.

But the splits have not been without their share of problems. The TMC Democratic Forum claimed that it had six members and applied to the Corporation Commissioner that it be treated as a seperate outfit.

But two of the six are still with the TMC, claims the party. The day after the split, one defector, a woman councillor, in a signed statement, said that she never left the TMC. ``I have always been grateful for being in the TMC. I was misled. They took a photograph and I was told I was with the Forum,'' Mrs. R. Varalakshmi said. She handed over a signed letter with her thumb impression affixed to the Corporation Commissioner on April 4 saying that she was with the TMC.

But the Forum maintained that she had given a similar letter supporting them too, earlier. Another supporter of the Forum, Mrs.Lingammal, was also `missing' from the Council on Wednesday. Both the TMC and the Forum claimed that the councillor was with them.

Most of these `loyalty shifts' have more to do with perceived ``gains'' on the part of the councillors than anything cause- based. But the leader of the Forum, Mr. Vasu, a milk-baron, argues that his group stood for the ``principles of Mr. Chidambaram''.

At the other end of the spectrum, an MGR ADMK councillor later `decided' to remain independent. After switching back and forth out of the outfit for a while in the past five years, he has for now decided to remain an independent. He cited his inability to look ahead and decide which outfit would benefit him to remain the lone independent member. Another councillor from North Chennai, who won as an independent, later decided to throw his lot with the BJP. He remains the lone BJP member.

Congress(I) is one party whose strength reads like a motorbike speed slogan: ``zero to three in three years.'' It happened after Mr. Thiagarajan was expelled from the TMC for anti-party activities. He took one more councillor with him and joined the Congress (I). But that did not last long. With the assembly elections and the maneuvering, Mr. Thiagarajan and his two-member group found the AIADMK a safer bet. Three of the four joined the AIADMK, while one woman councillor remained with the Congress(I).

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