Karunanidhi will not dare to topple the Manmohan applecart: Experts

DMK chief M Karunanidhi will not be the cause for the fall of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, say leading political commentators in Tamil Nadu who maintain close liaison with the grand old man of Tamil Nadu politics.

“Karunanidhi is exceptionally intelligent and creative and has made politics a form of art. He is capable of teaching the master manipulators of New Delhi one or two new games every day,” said a DMK watcher with more than four decades association with Karunanidhi.
 
“Karunanidhi has been enjoying uninterrupted supply of power since 1999 both with BJP and Congress. When he found that the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP has lost its sheen prior to the 2004 General Election, he dumped it and crossed overnight to the Rainbow alliance formed by the Congress."

"Now, with his daughter Kanimozhi and her close associate A Raja enmeshed in deep trouble following the 2G spectrum scam, Karunanidhi will not dare to topple the Manmohan applecart. It is true that the DMK is not happy with the Congress. But Karunanidhi has to make alternate arrangements for uninterrupted supply of power to his clan and other DMK bigwigs,” said the observer who did not want his name to be quoted.
 
He pointed out that this was not the first time the DMK showed its displeasure over the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. “In 2009, he had asked the DMK MPs to submit their resignation from the Parliament. All MPs trooped into the party headquarters and handed over their resignation letters to Karunanidhi. Then he undertook a half-day fast at Mareena beach in the company of both his wives to make known his resentment over India’s mishandling of the Tamil issue. But Karunanidhi neither sent in the resignation letters nor did he snap the ties with the Congress,” he said.
 
Unless and until a viable and winning combination is formed to upstage the Congress-led UPA, Karunanidhi will not topple the UPA.

“He is trying to rope in the Lefts, the Samajwadi Party , the Dalit outfits and the Vijayakant-led DMDK to fight the Jayalalithaa regime. Interestingly, his one and only enemy is the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK. Karunanidhi has no prime ministerial ambitions since he is intelligent enough to understand that it’s a different ball game which is beyond his capability. For him, the immediate concerns are the anointment of his son MK Stalin as Tamil Nadu’s chief minister and a possible cabinet berth for his poetess-daughter Kanimozhi once she gets acquitted in the spectrum scam. For elder son Alagiri, he has a plan, like Don Vito Corleone, the central character of Mario Puzzo’s famous novel he Godfather had for his favourite son Mike Corleone. Till then Karunanidhi will be a trusted and dependable ally of the Congress.