Local body elections to test DMK-Congress ties

NEW DELHI: The strain in the DMK-Congress relations could manifest itself in a breach in ties in the State local body polls scheduled to take place later this year. By all indications, the seven-year old allies would go their own ways in the local polls that would apparently indic­ate who holds the actual levers of control in the State.Though the DMK leadership is in “no state of mind to think of elections” now, party sources said the rank and file are in a vengeful mood after the drubbing in the elections. Not to mention the sore the DMK is nursing over  the Congress’ refusal to offer anything more than sympathies on party MP Kanimozhi being jailed.The first family, sources say, does not expect “any positive outcome” in the Kanimozhi case, and is bracing for another legal blow.A section in the DMK, therefore, is egging patriarch M Karunanidhi to settle scores with the Congress. This section bitterly complains about the manner in which Congress forced them to part with a chunk of DMK’s winnable Assembly seats that resulted in the poll debacle. The DMK apparently feels that it has to distance itself from the Congress to make public “the sense of victimhood and of having been ditched by an ally’’ during crisis.The forlorn figure of the once-powerful aging father’s (Karunanidhi’s) inability to save his daughter from what he feels is wrongful detention, is apparently already evoking sympathy. A senior Congress leader from the state admitted that “much of the anger against the (DMK) family is turning into empathy’’ and “the helpless father’s plight’’ is causing it.Though it is always the ruling party which has managed to fare better in the local body polls in Tamil Nadu, the DMK feels that the tide could turn in its favour this time. The party is readying itself to give a good fight to arch rival AIADMK.The Congress, on its part, apparently sees this is as an opportunity to try its own luck in the state by going solo in the local polls.This, despite the fact that CM J Jayalalithaa’s popularity is at its peak and is unlikely to wane as early as in October-November when the polls are scheduled.Meanwhile, Union Minister P Chidambaram and G K Vasan have thrown in their hats for the TNCC chief’s post, lying vacant since K V Thangkabalu’s unceremonious exit after the poll results. However, a source said stature in New Delhi does not matter at the local level.