Coffee with Sonia turns cold for DMK supremo

[1]

“Madam, you have not given us coffee,” DMK president M. Karunanidhi reminded his hostess after 15 minutes passed through what seemed a strangely cold meeting of the old allies at 10, Janpath on January 31. After passing on instructions to her domestic staff, AICC president Sonia Gandhi told her octogenarian visitor, who had come with a small DMK group that included his MP daughter Kanimozhi, that “very good Madras coffee” was coming. And later while taking leave of the AICC chief, Mr Karunanidhi thanked her politely for serving “really good coffee”.
Little did he realise at that time, despite his long political experience, that the warmth he enjoyed with the Congress leadership had gone cold. Actually that evening meeting had taken place after a couple of postponements during the day. Congress sources said that the party had by then begun contemplating distancing itself from the DMK hoping that it will help combat the spectrum stigma.
Back then, elections to five state assemblies, including Tamil Nadu, were fast approaching and some Congress seniors strongly believed that the party’s prospects will be seriously dented by the spectrum scam and that breaking away from the DMK could salvage the situation to a large extent. Besides, there were open hints from the Tamil ally that the CBI should be told to go slow with the probe, notwithstanding the close monitoring by the Supreme Court, sources said.
They said that the Congress had by then also opened a secret channel of communication with AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa. Last November, she had offered to “more than make up” for the loss of the DMK support in Parliament should the Congress take the bold decision to dump Mr Karunanidhi on the spectrum issue but at that time, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azhad had said there “is no vacancy in Tamil Nadu”. The political mosaic changed dramatically since then, thanks to the spectrum developments.
While the Congress’ ties with the DMK seem fractured beyond repair, it is not yet clear whether Ms Jayalalithaa will push her advantage further by tying up with the Congress. Her party sources said she appeared supremely sure of winning even without any allies and that confidence only multiplied manifold after the recent pact with Mr Vijayakanth.
“She may even think there is no need to accommodate the Congress in her camp as that will cost her 50 to 60 seats and also earn the wrath of longtime allies, the Communists,” said a source, adding, “The next couple of days should provide all the answers.”