Friday, August 17, 2018

TN REMEMBERS ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE

Brand Vajpayee was in high demand in TN in 90s

Jayaraj.Sivan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.08.2018

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was able to make inroads into the Dravidian heartland of Tamil Nadu with ease, first through an electoral tie-up with the AIADMK in 1998. Even as that alliance was snapping shortly a year after it was forged, Vajpayee pieced together an alternative with another Dravidian major, the DMK.

More than Vajpayee wanting to ally with the AIADMK and the DMK, it was J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi who were keen on tying up with the BJP under Vajpayee, said M Kasinathan, political analyst. As the BJP was emerging on the national scene after kar seva and the Ayodhya marches, Jayalalithaa saw an opportunity to regain a foothold in the political power struggle. She felt a tie-up with the BJP would help gain importance on the national scene and also weaken a slew of cases filed by central agencies against her. The grand alliance that included the PMK and the MDMK stumped Karunanidhi.

There was a Tamil Nadu link to his government’s undoing too. The infamous Delhi tea party that pulled down his government was scripted by Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, an MP from Tamil Nadu, and was played out by his ally Jayalalithaa and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. After the truck ended, Jayalalithaa claimed it was she who introduced Vajpayee to the people of TN. The journey with the AIADMK was a roller-coaster ride for Vajpayee all through. Trouble began even before the government could be formed as Jayalalithaa delayed her party’s letter of support to his government, said political commentator R Rangaraj.

There was no looking back since then and the BJP made huge inroads in TN. People in Karunanidhi’s inner circle in the ‘90s say he felt he missed a chance to tie up with Vajpayee in 1998. He grabbed it a year later by extending support to salvage Vajpayee’s government. Karunanidhi’s larger game plan was to keep Jayalalithaa out of power, both in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre.

Karunanidhi’s nephew Murasoli Maran, who saw a chance of becoming a Union minister, played a key role in sealing the alliance. In the process, Karunanidhi even embraced his estranged colleague and MDMK leader Vaiko. Despite the Vajpayee government falling in 1999, the BJP-DMK alliance continued and formed the government at the Centre that year.

BJP’s dabbling with major alliance partners in Tamil Nadu ended with the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Since then, both the DMK and the AIADMK have been hesitant about any electoral truck with the BJP.

People cutting across party lines who happened to interact and move closely with Vajpayee were swayed by his aura. Leaders like Vaiko, despite falling out with the BJP, held Vajpayee in high esteem.



GOLDEN ERA: A September 2003 photo of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee being received by DMK president M Karunanidhi at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, where he had gone to meet Murasoli Maran

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