Jayalalitha will give a good govt.: Moopanar

By Radha Venkatesan

CHENNAI, MARCH 10. The Tamil Maanila Congress president, Mr. G. K. Moopanar, today announced that the ``Congress-TMC alliance with the AIADMK is on'' in Tamil Nadu and virtually stood guarantor for the AIADMK general secretary, Ms. Jayalalitha, providing a ``good government'', if voted back to power.

``I am certain she (Ms. Jayalalitha) will give a good government,'' Mr. Moopanar, who floated the TMC in 1996 in protest against the Congress' alliance with the AIADMK, said at a press conference here.

Claiming that the AIADMK-led secular front was a ``winning alliance'', Mr. Moopanar said he had no objection to Ms. Jayalalitha, convicted in two corruption cases, being projected as a chief ministerial candidate of the front. ``The AIADMK is the major party in the front. It is for them to decide who should be the chief ministerial candidate.''

After 32 days of bargaining with the AIADMK, the TMC leader who had first sought 50 seats settled for 47 seats to the Congress- TMC combine, and signed the alliance pact with the AIADMK this morning.

Keen on roping in a reluctant Congress into the tie- up, the TMC chief agreed to give the former 15 seats ``they wanted'' and keep 32 seats for his party. However, the Congress would not get the Tiruchi parliamentary seat it contested unsuccessfully in the last Lok Sabha election.

As for Pondicherry, the TMC leader, saying that the Congress-TMC would float a separate front independent of the AIADMK, said the Union Territory's electoral strategy would be decided later.

Ending speculation over whether the Congress had given the go- ahead for an alliance with the pro-LTTE PMK-inclusive AIADMK front, Mr. Moopanar said the Congress general secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, had authorised him to ``negotiate'' and ``conclude'' the alliance with the AIADMK. ``I have signed the alliance agreement on behalf of the Congress too,'' Mr. Moopanar said.

Alliance justified

However, in an indication of his lack of enthusiasm over the alliance, the State Congress president, Mr. E. V. K. S. Elangovan, said, ``I am neither happy nor unhappy. Mr. Moopanar has taken a decision and Ms. Sonia Gandhi has approved it. I will abide by it.''

At the press conference, Mr. Moopanar, justifying the pact with the AIADMK, which he had dubbed corrupt even during the 1999 Lok Sabha election, said: ``The alliance with the AIADMK is not opportunistic. We are part of a secular front and opposed to communalism of the BJP (which is in the DMK front).'' Corruption, he said, was an individual problem and could be ``rectified''.

Taking a veiled jibe at the DMK president, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, who too faced corruption charges during his chief ministership in the 1970s, Mr. Moopanar said that TMC ``brought to power those who committed mistakes in the past too.''

On the DMK's charge that his party was supporting corrupt forces, Mr. Moopanar said, ``I can also quote what they said against communalism and the 1 crore signatures they collected against the BJP.'' The TMC, he stressed, had not given up the ``anti- corruption'' agenda, but ``the AIADMK is in the opposition now and not in power''.

Non-committal

On the possibility of Ms. Jayalalitha being disqualified from contesting the election, he said: ``I don't know the law. I am not a lawyer.''

Asked whether he would be willing to take on the chief ministership if Ms. Jayalalitha was disqualified, Mr. Moopanar said, ``the question does not arise now.'' On whether he would contest the coming Assembly election, Mr. Moopanar, who is an MP, said his term in the Rajya Sabha would expire only in 2004.

As for the TMC's earlier demand for power-sharing already shot down by the AIADMK, he said, ``no power-sharing. Not now.'' Defending the PMK's inclusion into the AIADMK front, he said, ``it is not a casteist force'' and the ``other parties'' (DMK front) also supported pro-LTTE outfits.

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