The exit of DMK ministers from the Union government appeared certain on Sunday night with the Congress making it clear that it would not try to persuade them to desist. This is being perceived as the first step in the party’s departure from the UPA. The DMK has, however, maintained that even after its ministers resigned it would extend “issue-based” support to the Manmohan Singh government.

The Congress was tightlipped on whether it would ally with Ms Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK in next month’s Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. The party’s crisis managers might be waiting to see if the DMK would actually take such an extreme step at a time when the corruption issue has reached its first family, forcing it to contest the crucial electoral battle ahead almost singlehandedly.
The DMDK, MDMK and the Left parties are now with the AIADMK-led front. But if the Congress too joins hands with Ms Jayalalithaa, then the Congress, AIADMK and DMDK could constitute a formidable force ranged against Mr Karunanidhi, sources said, even if the Left and some others walk out.
“Our silence is the reply to the DMK’s threat to pull out its ministers from the Union Cabinet. We will not try to persuade them. The Prime Minister will take a decision on their resignation,” highly-placed Congress sources said. They added: “No initiative will be taken by us to break the deadlock. We are prepared for the DMK to pull its ministers out of the government.” The DMK, which has 18 members in the Lok Sabha, has two Cabinet ministers (Dayanidhi Maran and M.K. Alagiri), and four ministers of state (S. Gandhiselvan, S. Jagathrakshakan, S.S. Palanimanickam and D. Napoleon). The sources further said the DMK’s “offer” to give the Congress 60 seats was “meaningless” in the sense that it had already left seats for the PMK and itself.
In a related development, the SP is the first supporting party to pledge support to the Manmohan Singh government in case the DMK leaves the UPA. “There is no threat to the government. It is not in a minority,” Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav said in Lucknow on Sunday. “The SP had and will continue to support the government at the Centre,” he said.
The SP had earlier extended its crucial support to the government when the Left parties withdrew support on the question of the nuclear deal with the United States in the middle of 2008.
The SP has 22 members in the Lok Sabha. Both the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party of Ms Mayawati (with 21 Lok Sabha MPs), which are bitter rivals in Uttar Pradesh, have been extending “outside support” to the UPA government.
The DMK’s isolation in the UPA is clear with none of the other allies of the Congress willing to play any kind of mediatory role at this juncture. The DMK is a senior ally of the Congress in Tamil Nadu, but the 2G spectrum scam has clearly put the Dravdian party on the defensive. This was reflected in the seat-sharing negotiations between the two parties.
The mood in the Congress is not in favour of the DMK, with most leaders privately saying that party has become a “liability”. The Congress leaders feel they are being made to pay the political price for defending the DMK leaders involved in the telecom scam.
Asked if the Congress was comfortable with Ms Jayalalithaa, the sources said it was for Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister to take a call.
In Chennai, DMK Lok Sabha leader T.R. Baalu said: “Our ministers will go to Delhi to submit their resignations tomorrow (Monday).” Mr Baalu also said no one from the Congress had got in touch with the DMK after it announced the decision to pull out of the government. The CPI(M), meanwhile, says it has not got any indication that the AIADMK would leave its allies to join hands with the Congress for the Assembly polls. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat indicated that the DMK-Congress rift was likely to be resolved soon. He said on Sunday: “We are in the midst of finalising seat-sharing with the AIADMK. We have no such indication. We are in constant touch with the parties with which we are going to contest the elections in Tamil Nadu.” He was replying to a question on whether the AIADMK would woo the Congress now that the DMK had pulled out of the UPA, and if the AIADMK would then leave its current allies. On the DMK’s decision, Mr Karat said: “Trouble within the UPA is nothing new. Earlier too they had differences over ministerial berths. It is up to them. They will sort it out, I think. We are not concerned with what they are doing. You will soon see what happens.” Asked if the rift will benefit the AIADMK-led coalition, he said that in TN “if one coalition has problems, it will help the other”.