Chennai: Call it overconfidence or clear-cut conviction, but the flower decorations at DMK supremo and former chief minister M Karunanidhi’s memorial at Marina indicated that the grand old party of the south firmly believes that it would play a major role in deciding who will rule the country, even before counting of votes started today.The DMK supporters who visited the Karunanidhi memorial by the Marina were in for a pleasant surprise today as the usual flower decoration carried a message.
In Tamil, it read, ‘Nam kaiyil maanila arasu. Naam kaatuvadhey madhdhiya arasu‘.
Roughly translated, it says – We have the State government in our hands. Who we pinpoint will form the Central government.
The DMK clearly exuded confidence that it will play a major role at the Centre on who will form the next government in New Delhi.
Late party president Karunanidhi was instrumental in forming alliances and ruling the government at the Centre many times and was hailed as the kingmaker of Indian politics when he was alive. But can Stalin’s DMK do what his father did and help in forming a coalition government at the Centre is the question on everyone’s mind.
At the time of writing, the prospects for DMK did not look good. In the Assembly by-elections in Tamilnadu, DMK (leading in 5) were a shade behind AIADMK who were leading in 6 constituencies.
On the national front in the Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA was leading in 269 seats all over the country, the Indian National Congress, in 56, and DMK was leading in 21 seats in Tamilnadu. The AIADMK could make its presence felt only in two seats.