DMK-Congress: Frenemies’ first Lok Sabha alliance dates back to 1971

New Delhi, Feb 22: Tamil Nadu is one of the important states in terms of Lok Sabha seats. It sends 39 members to the lower house of the Parliament.

The Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) have stitched an alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The DMK is one of the important Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1949 as a breakaway faction of the Dravidar Kazhagam by C. N. Annadurai in Madras State, which was later renamed as Tamil Nadu on January 14, 1969.

Though the DMK and the Congress share a frenemy kind of relation, their Lok Sabha alliance dates back to 1971. On one occasion, the Congress even toppled Union Government demanding the expulsion of the DMK from it.

Even the DMK's mother organisation, Dravidar Kazhagam, was born to oppose the Congress' policies. Periyar E. V. Ramasamy had broken his ties with the Congress in order to start a movement in 1925 that later gave birth to Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944.

DMK's Lok Sabha Journey

The DMK was the first regional political party of then Madras State to send its representatives in the Lok Sabha. Seven DMK candidates were elected to the Lok Sabha in 1962 general elections.

In the 1967 general elections, the DMK improved its performance substantially and won 25 seats.

The DMK first entered into an alliance in 1971 general elections when it joined hands with the Congress and won 23 seats.

When the Lok Sabha elections were held post emergency in 1977 then the DMK joined hands with the Janata Party and won two seats.

After the fall of Morarji Desai led Janata Party government, the DMK again forged an alliance with the Congress and won 16 Lok Sabha seats in 1980 elections.

In 1984 Lok Sabha polls, the DMK for the first time entered into an alliance with multi parties. General elections were held in 1984 soon after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The party joined hands with Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Janata Party and Tamil Nadu Congress and won only two seats.

The sympathy wave post-assassination of Indira Gandhi helped her son Rajiv Gandhi to secure a landslide victory for the Congress in 1984 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress' total tally stood at 414 seats.

In 1989, the DMK joined hands with the National Front launched by V.P. Singh. The DMK could not win any seat, but V.P Singh became Prime Minister of a coalition government.

The Lok Sabha elections were again necessitated in 1991 because the previous Lok Sabha saw two Prime Ministers: VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar.

The DMK again could not win a seat during the 1991 elections. This was the election wherein former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, in Tamil Nadu's Sriperembudur constituency by a suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

When general elections were announced in 1996 to elect 11th Lok Sabha, the Dravidian Party won 17 seats after a gap of 12 years as a part of the Third Front.

However, that Lok Sabha couldn't complete its full term and saw three prime ministers: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H.D. Deve Gowda, and I.K Gujral.

Interestingly, it was the DMK which became the prime reason for the premature dissolution of the 11th Lok Sabha. The Congress withdrew its support to Gujral government when he refused to drop the DMK from his government.

The Congress had asked for the expulsion of the DMK after the Jain Commission report indicted the DMK, its leader M Karunanidhi and others for the LTTE's unchecked activities in Tamil Nadu that led to Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

When elections were held in 1998 to elect 12th Lok Sabha then the DMK could only win five seats.

This was the Lok Sabha in which Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government lost the Vote of Confidence Motion with just one vote. Saifuddin Soz; a Member of Parliament (MP) of Jammu and Kashmir's National Conference, a coalition partner of ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA); voted against Vajpayee government by defying his party's orders.

Interestingly, the Vajpayee government had to face the Vote of Confidence because of another Dravidian party. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo Jayalalitha withdrew her party's support after she failed to persuade Vajpayee government to dismiss the DMK-led M. Karunanidhi government in Tamil Nadu.

The era of unstable governments ended after 1999 Lok Sabha polls when Vajpayee led a coalition government for full five years.

Then the DMK had come under the umbrella of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led NDA and won 12 seats. That Lok Sabha election has remained the first and last election when the DMK sided with the BJP.

Before the 2004 General Elections, the DMK formed Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) and included Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Indian Union Muslim League and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi in it.

The DMK improved its tally by winning 16 seats and other DPA alliance partners won 13 seats. The Congress bagged 10 seats.

The DMK returned back to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) during 2009 Lok Sabha polls and won 18 seats.

The party failed to even win a single seat during 2014 Lok Sabha elections

Corruption Charges

The party faced corruption charges over 2G spectrum allocation. In 2010, a case was filed against Minister for Communications and Information Technology and DMK MP A. Raja for causing the government exchequer multi-crore loss. He was accused of undercharging mobile telephone companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they used to create 2G spectrum subscriptions for cell phones.

Raja was arrested on February 2, 2011, and was released on bail after 15 months on May 15, 2012.

DMK Supremo late M. Karunanidhi's daughter MK Kanimozhi was also arrested and sent to Tihar jail on May 20, 2011, for alleged kickbacks in 2G case. She got bail on November 28, 2011.

On 21 December 2017, a Special CBI Court acquitted all accused, including Raja and Kanimozhi, in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

However, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation have filed appeals against this verdict in the Delhi High Court.