NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
By putting the ball in the Congress court, Tamil Maanila Congress founder G K Moopanar has kept everyone, including All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagan, DMK, Dalit Panthers and the New Justice Party, guessing.
"We are inching towards an alliance with the AIADMK," is what a senior TMC leader said without, however, committing himself.
"There are a lots of ifs and buts and they remain unresolved," he elaborated.
"We are awaiting word from the Congress high command," says a TMC leader.
Indications are that doubts still linger in the Congress about being seen in the company of the PMK, a pro-LTTE outfit. Added to that, the PMK hopes to replace the Congress in the driver's seat in Pondicherry.
Another factor to be kept in mind if the Congress' 'Bengal predicament'. A strong section of the state unit is in favour of a Grand Alliance with the Trinamul Congress-BJP combine."
According to TMC sources, considering the state of his health and the funds required to face the polls, Moopanar is against a Third Front. The choice is thus between the AIADMK-led front and the DMK combine; it actually narrows down to the PMK and the BJP.
While it is a life and death battle for the TMC, whose relevance in state politics depends on its performance in the assembly polls, the Congress has little to lose by being part of a Third Front.
While it is not a force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu, it is confident of winning Pondicherry in the company of the TMC and its Third Front allies.
Post-poll, the Congress does not rule out the possibility of the AIADMK moving closer to the BJP. "A Third Front will help us maintain an equi-distance between AIADMK and the DMK," says the Congress leader.
"If anything, it is the AIADMK that has a life-and-death battle on its hands," says a senior Congress leader.
Moopanar's delay has also affected the NDA combine. The DMK has not given up hope on the TMC returning to its fold. Whether or not the TMC rejoins the combine, the DMK is confident of roping in the Dalit Panthers and, possibly, the New Justice Party as well.
The latter, however, is playing hard to get given the compulsions from within the dominant Mudaliar community, which is sore over the unremunerative prices for paddy and other farm produce under the DMK dispensation, which the community had backed over the decades.
"We do not want to be seen as grabbing an ally of the TMC from under its nose," says a DMK leader.
In this context, he refers to the AIADMK inducting the PMK into its combine without consulting the Congress and the TMC.
"We continue to support all TMC panchayat presidents elected with our support even two years after the party left the combine," he points out.
"The TMC would be better off in the DMK alliance given the fact that civic polls are due later this year and the AIADMK, if it won the assembly polls, would not have time for its allies," he said.
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