Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s congratulatory phone call to AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa, when she also invited her for tea during her first visit to New Delhi after taking charge as chief minister on Monday, has triggered expectations in political circles here that the Congress had decided to sever its alliance with the DMK and cozy up to the AIADMK supremo.
Ms Jayalalithaa is likely to visit New Delhi on Friday, when she will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other prominent leaders, besides of course having tea at Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s residence. The two leaders will be personally interacting with each other for the first time in over a decade. It might be a bit too early to conclude that they would talk politics, let alone an alliance, but there is already enough of “circumstantial evidence” to indicate that a “meeting of the minds” has already begun.
The Congress, say its leaders here, has already begun to view the DMK as a “liability and big embarrassment” to continue as an ally for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The party leadership has begun the process of repairing relations with the AIADMK chief, who will need all possible help from the Centre to deliver on her poll manifesto within 18 months as promised.
Confirming the tea invitation, Ms Jayalalithaa told reporters on Sunday outside Raj Bhavan, where she met governor S.S. Barnala to stake her claim to forming the government, that she had got a call from Mrs Gandhi on Saturday congratulating her on the election victory. AIADMK sources said there was also an invitation to have tea and it was accepted.
The Congress officially does not want to proclaim its pro-Jayalalithaa shift just yet. Party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan tried to downplay the issue. “Our party president congratulated Jayalalithaa. It is a courtesy that is extended in a democracy to a leader who has led her party to victory,” Ms Natarajan said.
Some political analysts insist that Ms Jayalalithaa would not rush into an alliance with the Congress and might take some time to decide. “Why should she want to share the anti-incumbency burden acquired by the Congress over the last couple of years? The UPA has been taking many unpopular decisions, such as the petrol price hike,” said a senior leader of VCK, a constituent in the DMK-Congress camp.