Chennai: The adage ‘Enemy’s enemy is a friend’ appears to be passé, at least in the Tamilnadu political arena. With Lok Sabha elections fast approaching, the two major players – AIADMK and DMK – have decided to follow a new strategy – ‘Enemy’s friend is your first enemy’.
By being charitable to allies, the AIADMK and DMK have given away 20 seats to them out of the 40 (39 in Tamilnadu and one in Puducherry). They are of the opinion that the seats to be contested by their archrival’s partners are easy targets to post victory, and, hence, are planning to focus more on these constituencies.
Says an AIADMK manager, “Everyone knows a majority of the voters here hate the Congress for various reasons. Likewise, DMK’s other partners, the CPI(M), CPI, VCK, MDMK, IUML and IJK, too, don’t enjoy the support of the people. So, the candidates of the AIADMK and its allies will surely emerge victorious in the 20 seats to be contested by the above parties. We will focus more on these constituencies and attract people towards us. In seats where there is direct contest between the AIADMK and DMK, our strategy will be different.”
Sensing this, the DMK has asked its district satraps to lend all support to candidates of alliance partners. Also, the M K Stalin-led party has decided to concentrate more on constituencies where the AIADMK’s allies are going to contest.
“We will surely win the five seats where the BJP will contest from the AIADMK-led front. The four seats bagged by the DMDK, too, is an easy target. We are ready to take on the PMK also. There is huge anti-incumbency which will work in favour of us this time. The AIADMK and its partners will be defeated,” says a DMK office-bearer.
P Shanmugam, closely watching Tamilnadu politics for the past four decades, says, “I don’t think any party or alliance will make a clean sweep this time. Factors such as absence of strong leaders and the DMK and AIADMK giving away too many seats to alliance partners will have an impact.”
FINAL TALLY
AIADMK – 20
DMK – 20
PMK – 7
Cong – 10
BJP – 5
CPI – 2
DMDK – 4
CPI(M) – 2
TMC – 1
VCK – 2
AINRC – 1
MDMK – 1
PT – 1
IUML – 1
NJP – 1
IJK – 1
KMDK – 1
TOTAL – 40