PMK finds support from MGR-ADMK

By Suresh Nambath

CHENNAI, JAN. 6. The PMK, currently on a collision course with both the BJP and the DMK, is finding some support in the NDA from the MGR-ADMK in Tamil Nadu.

Although his party is only a relatively minor constituent of the NDA, the MGR-ADMK general secretary, Mr. S. Thirunavukkarasu, spoke up for the PMK in a recent meeting with the Chief Minister and DMK president, Mr. M. Karunanidhi.

After a discussion with the PMK founder, Dr. S. Ramadoss, the MGR-ADMK leader tried to impress upon Mr. Karunanidhi the need to retain the PMK in the NDA.

Apparently, Mr. Thirunavukkarasu found Dr. Ramadoss very bitter about the manner in which the BJP and the DMK handled the PMK-TRC conflict.

Interceding for the PMK, Mr. Thirunavukkarasu communicated to Mr. Karunanidhi his view that all uncertainties about the continuance of the PMK in the NDA should be ended well before election-time.

By allowing the issue to drag on, the NDA might suffer irreversible damage in the run-up to the election. In the understanding of Mr. Thirunavukkarasu, the problem might assume unmanageable proportions closer to election-time.

While Mr. Karunanidhi is reported to have given a patient hearing to the MGR-ADMK leader, no commitment was made about settling the issue.

Evidently, the DMK was seeing the issue as a problem arising out of the PMK strategy to drive a hard bargain in seat negotiations. The DMK believed that no solution could be found to the PMK-TRC conflict without granting the PMK concessions in electoral arrangements in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

In private conversations, Dr. Ramadoss is expressing the view that the PMK is continuing in the NDA despite ``knowing'' that an alliance with the AIADMK could mean a ``sweep'' in the next election. The same was communicated to the MGR-ADMK.

Sources close to Mr. Thirunavukkarasu say that he took the initiative only at an informal level.

He was merely trying to help resolve the problem and not play the role of a mediator. Surely, the MGR-ADMK does not wish to rub the DMK on the wrong side.

The effort, instead, is to retain the present alliance for the coming election ``in the interest of all parties''.

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Section  : Southern States
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