Friday, May 17, 2002
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Tamil Nadu
By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau
Although the Congress, the Tamil Maanila Congress, the CPI and the CPI(M) have extended support to the INL nominee, Aroor Nawaz, there appears little agreement among these parties on campaigning on a common platform. Initially, Vaniyambadi appeared to have set the stage for the coming together of all disgruntled AIADMK allies. Now, however, the problems of the CPI(M) in being seen in the company of the Congress and a communal party such as the INL are likely to make the Vaniyambadi get-together a one-off experiment. The CPI(M) State secretary, N. Varadarajan, makes it clear that support for the INL does not involve any compromise of the party's national policy of avoiding alliances with communal organisations. The State secretariat, which debated the issue of support for the INL, did not go into policy details. But the State unit got the clearance of the Central leadership on this issue. Thus, the support to the INL would be a one-time exception. Indeed, the CPI(M) made sure that the INL was contesting on independent symbol before committing its support. This was especially necessary as there were pointers to the possibility of the INL seeking to contest on Congress symbol. When the CPI(M) leaders took up the issue with INL office-bearers, it was clarified that the Mr. Nawaz would stand on a free symbol, `Bus'. Among the debating points thrown up by the byelection is the issue of Vaniyambadi being permanently allocated to a Muslim League faction. The AIADMK is now taking a different line. Last year, the party leader, Jayalalithaa, gave the seat to the INL leader, Abdul Latheef, but reduced the number of seats to his party to just one. This time round, Ms. Jayalalithaa is trying to consolidate the Hindu vote. Sensing that there could be a plethora of Muslim contestants, she opted to play the majority card, without overtly offending the minority. The BJP read the message and decided to remain `neutral' in this constituency. But its front organisations including the Hindu Munnani and the Shiv Sena, offered open support to the AIADMK. At the end of the whole exercise and as the campaign gathers momentum, it looks to be a real fight between the traditional rivals — DMK and AIADMK. All along, they were offering this seat to a Muslim League faction aligned with them. But now they have decided to contest themselves. The DMK opted for a popular Muslim candidate, known for his lyrics and songs. Without charismatic candidates like Latheef, the INL is also finding it difficult to sustain the campaign. For one reason or the other, in the last one year, the Congress, the TMC, the Left parties and the INL left the AIADMK-led secular front formed for the May 2001 general election. Although the half-hearted attempt at finalising a coordinated strategy for the Andipatti byelection did not take off, the present round of elections was expected to lay the basis for an alternative secular front. For the moment, that is likely to remain a distant possibility.
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