DMK Pulls Out Of UPA Over Seat Allocation
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By Pallab Ghosh
In a major development the DMK, one of the major alliance of the UPA, unhappy over the seat allocation has decided to pull out of the government and extend its support the UPA government from outside.
DMK leader T R Baalu on Thursday evening announced the breakdown of talks after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up DMK chief M Karunanidhi who conveyed his rejection of the Congress proposal.
This unprecedented situation created by the DMK of pressuring the Congress may have serious impact on the functioning of the government as it would keep pushing the running of the government on the tenterhook and always create a political crisis by threatening to pull back its support to government as we have witnessed during the past as in the case of the Left which decided to extend support from outside but had made the functioning of the government difficult ever since the UPA was elected.
Not to forget of the speeches rendered by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, chief minister of West Bengal who once said that the UPA will have to oblige and function in whatever way the Left demands. However, the present crisis over the DMK issue explains that the issue is not the ‘number game’ though but holding key portfolios in the government.
“The congress understanding the sentiments of the DMK proposed them with maintain the status quo as it was in 2004 and giving the same cabinet share but the DMK refused to accept and said it would not accept anything less than seven seats”, said Janardan Trivedi, Congress general secretary at a press meet in the capital on Thursday.
It may be recalled DMK chief K Karunanidhi's son M K Azhagiri, his grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran and party leader T R Baalu were among those for whom Cabinet berths were being demanded and the chief’s daughter Kanimozhi was among the likely candidates for the minister of state slot.
Reacting on this issue veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer who lost election said “Demanding seats as per its preference is nothing wrong in an alliance but whether the demand will be fulfilled is for Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister to decide. I hope Congress will find a solution to this crisis”.
The stalemate situation had arise when the Congress party expressing its dissatisfaction over the inclusion of T R Baalu and A Raja of the DMK in the cabinet. The Prime Minister is understood to be quite adamant over the issue and have made up his mind not to give in to the demand of the DMK as these two names featured in Central Vigilance Commission (CMC). Well, what the DMK chief has forgotten is that it enjoys a support of 35 MPs from outside in the state to run the government. Pulling back of support from the UPA may compel Sonia Gandhi to withdraw it support from the state government.
The unprecedented development on Thursday a day before the formation of the government had put all the political machinery into action. The convoys of VVIP and VIP cars were seen making rounds of 10 Janpath and & 7 RCR with senior Congress leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony and Ghulam Navi Azad.
The stalemate situation remained same till late night on Thursday. However, as per the latest development the swearing in ceremony will now commence at 6:30 pm instead of 5:30 pm on Friday.
Dr. Manmohan Singh has requested to the DMK chief to attend the swearing in ceremony who is scheduled to go back with full entourage on Friday to attend a high level executive meeting of the DMK over the issue of extending support to UPA government.
However, the DMK chief must understand that the political situation as compared to 2004 is different since UPA has considerable numbers of support and can form the government even without the DMK.
