DMK hold Congress' hand as desperate survival measures

The ties between the DMK and Congress would continue intact, said M Karunanidhi, the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam supremo.

“Our alliance is strong and will continue like this. But we will not nominate ministers in place of A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran who quit from the council of ministers,” Karunanidhi said on Sunday.

He was speaking to reporters after the party's two-day general council meet.

The DMK criticised the CBI for denying bail to Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, arrested in connection with the 2G Spectrum Scam along with Raja.

With a general consensus in Saturday’s executive committee meeting that the ties with the Congress has not been advantageous off late, no major changes are expected in the relation between the two parties.

“It is the DMK which needs the Congress now unlike the 2004 to 2009 tenure of the UPA when the Congress was at the mercy of the DMK,”  a senior DMK leader told DNA.

MK Azhagiri, Karunanidhi’s elder son and union minister for chemicals and fertilizers is also entangled in a series of cases ranging from land grabbing to murder.

Dayanidhi Maran, Karunanidhi's grand nephew and former union minister for textiles is at the brink of arrest. Veerapandi  Arumugam, a close associate and former agriculture minister has been asked by the Madras High Court to surrender before the Crime Branch on Monday for custodial interrogation.

KN Nehru, another former minister in the Karunanidhi cabinet is also on the run from the law.

Thus, Karunanidhi needs all the good will from the Congress.

With the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa ruling as chief minister, Karunanidhi has no friends in Tamil Nadu administration. Without Congress support, Karunanidhi and the DMK will find themselves without support both in the state and the Centre.

The tug of war between Stalin and Azhagiri for control of the party has been contained to a great extent. “Karunanidhi has made it clear to Azhagiri that inter family disputes should not be extended to the streets.Thats why he maintained a studied silence on Saturday and Sunday,” he pointed out. 

For Karunanidhi, top priorities are to prevent the DMK from disintegrating and extricate Kanimozhi and Raja from the telecom scam. He cannot do this without the Congress support. Any move by the DMK to alienate itself from the Congress will end up in the further weakening of the party.

A close aide to Karunanidhi scoffed at media reports about the “simmering fissures” in the DMK. “Stalin and Azhagiri badly need the organisational skills of Karunanidhi at this juncture because the DMK is not in an enviable situation now. It has already lost its  status as the main opposition party to a relatively new party like the DMDK of Vijayakant,” he said.