2006: A watershed year in TN political history

Chennai, Dec 31: 2006 may go down in the annals of Tamil Nadupolitical history as a watershed year with the state entering allianceera, bidding adieu to the single-party reign.

The formation of first minority government by the DMK with outsidesupport from allies, the emergence of greenhorn Vijayakanth as thirdpolitical force and the Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) suffering a verticalsplit marked the political scenario in the last 12 months.

The year began with hectic political activities as the crucial Assembly elections was slated for May.

The DMK, which made a clean sweep of the 2004 Parliamentaryelections by striking a grand seven-party rainbow alliance, tried torepeat the magic in the Assembly poll by retaining its flock together.

However, the AIADMK managed to upset the DMK's apple cart byluring the MDMK out of the Democratic Progressive Alliance in alast-minute coup of sorts.

Neverthless, the DMK came up with its trump card in the form of anelection manifesto, promising a slew of attractive freebies, includingfree colour television sets, two acres of land to landless farmers, PDSrice at Rs two per kg and waiver of farmers' cooperative loans.

Though the freebies caught the imagination of voters, it failed toget a decisive mandate for the DMK, which had to be content with 96seats in the 234-member House.

Even as expectations mounted over the possibility of a coalitiongovernment, with Congress MLAs openly expressing their wish to join theministry, the DMK stood its ground and formed a government on its ownwith the outside support of its allies.

However, it has not been a smooth sailing for Chief Minister andDMK President M Karunanidhi as the compulsion of coalition politicsheld him back from implementing some of his pet projects such asestablishing a satellite city near Chennai.

The local body elections in September also ruffled many a featherin the DPA camp, with the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) openly chargingthe DMK with blatant betrayal as its candidates were defeated by DMKmen in some constituencies in violation of ''coalition dharma.'' TheCPI(M), another ally, also severely criticised the Government foralleged violence and malpractices during polling in the Chennai city.

Though some of the allies are unhappy with the DMK for one reasonor the other, they are in no mood to rock the boat much to the reliefof the ruling party.

For the opposition AIADMK, it was not a memorable year as the party notonly lost out power to its rival in the Assembly election but alsosuffered an ignominious defeat in the civic polls. The party wasvirtually left friendless, except for the MDMK, after the DalitPanthers of India, which fought the Assembly election in alliance withthe AIADMK, switched sides due to differences over seat sharing for thelocal body polls.

In a pre-poll surprise, film actor and the then Rajya Sabha MPSarathkumar, belonging to the dominant Nadar community, quit the DMKand joined the AIADMK, only to resign from the primary membership ofthat party a few months later.

The apparent provocation for his decision was the expulsion of hisactress-wife Radhika from the AIADMK for taking part in a function tofelicitate Mr Karunanidhi.

AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa, who initially announcedthat she would keep away from Assembly proceedings for securityreasons, reversed her decision when all her party MLAs were suspendeden masse in the Assembly for alleged violent behaviour.

She attended the session as the lone AIADMK representative andtook on the Government on several issues, including the feasibility ofimplementing the free land scheme as promised by DMK in its electionmanifesto.

She also swiftly took over the role of Leader of the Oppositionand put forth her views in the debate on the first budget, presented bythe DMK Government.

However, the hero of the year was undoubtedly actor-politicianVijaykanth, who made an impressive debut in the electoral politicswithin one year of floating the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam(MDMK).

Silencing all his critics and sceptics, he not only gained entryinto the Assembly by winning the Vriddhachalam constituency, astronghold of the vanniyar-dominated PMK, but also his party garneredon its own ten per cent of the votes polled.

Vijayakanth, described as 'Black MGR' by his partymen, had to facethe wrath of both the dravidian parties, with Ms Jayalalithaa charginghim with attending Assembly sessions under the influence of alcohol,while Mr Karunanidhi lambasting him for criticising Government'spolicies and schemes.

With recent opinion polls indicating that Vijayakanth's DMDK mightemerge as an alternative to both the DMK and the AIADMK, expectationsabout the party had soared among the public and political analysts.

The year 2006 turned out to be a disappointing and difficult year forMDMK General Secretary Vaiko, whose party suffered a vertical splitafter two top-level leaders L Ganesan and Gingee N Ramachandran raiseda banner of revolt against his style of functioning. Mr Vaiko wasfacing an acid test, 13 years after he was squeezed out of the DMK andfounded the MDMK, as the rebel leaders convened a General Councilmeeting and expelled him from the primary membership of the MDMK for''anti-party'' activities.

The MDMK chief also came in for severe criticism when he decidedto switch loyalties ahead of the Assembly election and chose to joinhands with Ms Jayalalithaa whom he had lambasted as a ''dictator andfascist'' during his arrest under POTA by the AIADMK regime.

His detractors claim that Mr Vaiko's credibility had taken abeating as he switched over to the AIADMK camp, a few days after hepublicly declared that he would strengthen the hands of Mr Karunanidhiand held him assume the Chief Minister's post for the fifth time.

It was a pathetic year for the BJP which could hardly register itspresence in the state except for a few pockets in the deep south.

The BJP, which had to plough a lonely furrow with virtually notakers for the party to forge an alliance, drew a blank in theelection.

This had prompted the BJP leadership to effect a change of guardin the state unit, with party national secretary L Ganesan being madeas state President in a bid to boost the party's sagging morale.

Will the DMK Government be able to consolidate its position? Willthe DPA have a smooth sail? Will Mr Vijayakanth be able to sustain hispopularity and mass appeal? Will Mr Vaiko tide over the present crisis?Will Ms Jayalalithaa be able to pull out her party from the presentsetback and rejuvenate it? These are some of the crucial questions putforth by 2006, which the year 2007 might probably answer.

UNI