Bringing weeks of suspense to a climax, “Captain” Vijayakanth presented a birthday bouquet to the AIADMK chief, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, on Thursday and sent his negotiators to discuss seat-sharing for the upcoming Assembly election.
Through this move, the DMDK leader threw cold water on the Congress’ ambitions to cobble up a third front with him, the PMK and a few midget outfits. Even as the cadres and functionaries of both their parties celebrated bursting crackers and sharing sweets, the DMDK poll-team comprising the party presidium chairman Panruti S. Ramachandran, youth-wing secretary L.K. Sudhish — he is also the all-powerful brother-in-law of Vijayakanth — and treasurer R. Sundarrajan spent over 75 minutes at the AIADMK headquarters here.
They thrashed out the preliminaries of the alliance with Amma’s lieutenants, O.Panneerselvam, K.A. Sengottaiyan and Pollachi V. Jayaraman.
In fact, it was a special occasion for “Panruti”, an influential minister in the government of the late MGR, as he was stepping into the AIADMK office after 23 long years. It is common knowledge that he did his best in getting the dithering Captain to the AIADMK side. “Our alliance with the AIADMK is now confirmed,” he told mediapersons waiting outside. “This alliance is a popular one and it is a winning combine.”
Describing the session as a “preliminary” exercise, he said the actual seat numbers would be discussed in course of time.