Battle for ballot: Vaiko's makeover reinvigorates DMK

Chennai, Mar 9: Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) General Secretary Vaiko's dramatic switch to the AIADMK combine might have caused a dent in the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA), but the move has reinvigorated the DMK cadre to work with renewed enthusiasm for the party's victory in the May eight Assembly elections.

The mood was evident during the just concluded state conference of the DMK in Tiruchirapalli, which always brought a ''turning point'' to the party.

It was at the same venue five decades ago, that the DMK had taken the historic decision of entering the electoral arena and made its maiden entry to the Assembly in 1957.

Held against the backdrop of Assembly elections, the meet galvanised the DMK cadre into election mode with a single point agenda -- ''defeat the AIADMK at all cost''.

The message seemed to have gone well with lakhs of cadre who thronged the Rockfort Town, if their reactions were any indication, especially after the news of Mr Vaiko switching allegiance broke out on March four, the second day of the conference.

If it was a show of strength by the youth wing volunteers on the opening day, which had coincided with the wing's silver jubilee celebrations, there was a sudden surge of crowd the next day when Mr Vaiko walked over to the AIADMK camp.

Their anger over with Mr Vaiko was evident, but their resolve to ''teach him a lesson'' for ditching DMK President M Karunanidhi at the eleventh hour was palpable.

Overnight, the MDMK leader became a ''betrayer'' and the DMK men had one more reason to target the ruling AIADMK.

The cadre also seemed to have drawn inspiration from Mr Karunanidhi who said MDMK's exit from the DPA will not hamper its prospects at the hustings. On the otherhand, the partymen will work with greater dynamism for DPA's victory. The gathering was probably the largest for a party conference in the recent past and for the first time after several years, DMK men attended the meet with their family members, including infants, to express solidarity with their leader.

If a section of the crowd, especially women raised abusive slogans against Mr Vaiko, others dubbed the MDMK leader's decision as ''political suicide''. Many literally broke down recalling their fight against the ruling AIADMK to secure Mr Vaiko's release, after he was detained under the POTA.

A day before the MDMK leader quit the alliance, Mr Karunanidhi had said Mr Vaiko's cut out will not be removed even if he was not able to attend the conference. But the crowd would not allow it.

After the news of Mr Vaiko meeting Ms Jayalalithaa spread like wildfire, an irate crowd pulled down the huge cut out and set it on fire, giving vent to its ire.

Mr Vaiko's exit, to some extent deflected the focus in the conference, but Mr Karunanidhi, true to his political acumen, quickly came out with ''damage control'' exercise to ignore ''Vaiko episode''.

There was a large expectation that Congress President Sonia Gandhi would denounce Mr Vaiko for his decision, but that did not happen. Neither did any leader of the alliance parties hit out at him for quitting the DPA for the sake of getting few extra seats.

Finally, it was left to Ms Gandhi and Mr Karunanidhi to steal the thunder when they wound up the three-day conclave with inspiring and electrifying speeches, making up for what was lost. If the DMK leader impressed the crowd with details of the achievements of the UPA Government at the Centre, Ms Gandhi held the audience's attention with her simple but strong message exhorting them to take a pledge to free the state from the clutches of the AIADMK rule.

There was a note of disappointment though that the DMK could neither announce any seat sharing agreement nor release the party's election manifesto.

The first day, no doubt belonged to Party Deputy General Secretary M K Stalin, who, in his fiery speech, called upon the youth to achieve victory ''at any cost'' and never aspire for posts.

Quoting Winston Churchill, Mr Stalin said, ''Victory should be achieved at all costs.'' He said it was at the very same venue the party had adopted a resolution in 1996 calling for the removal of the Jayalalithaa regime then and declared ''history will repeat itself'' and the DMK will come back to power.

At the end, the meet had hammered the strong message for dethroning the Jayalalithaa regime into the cadre's minds. But the partymen seemed more interested in taking a vow to ''seal Mr Vaiko's fate'' in the coming elections turf.

UNI