DMK-Congress Alliance and LTTE

2 May 2004
Rajesh Ramachandran
The Times of India

TIRUCHENGODE: IK Gujral could be justifiably upset over this constituency: His brief stint at South Block ended when Congress, jumping at the JainCommission's interim report on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, withdrew support to the UF government by branding DMK guilty.

Eight years later, Subbulakshmi Jagdeesan is the DMK candidate for Tiruchengode, sandwiched between Salem and Gobichettipalayam both being contested by alliance partner Congress.

Jagdeesan is special, not because she seeks votes for Sonia Gandhi. She was a TADA detenue for 10 months accused of helping TELO leader Padmanabha's assassins. LTTE was the prime suspect and she was arrested after Jayalalithaa came to power. She figured in the JaiCommission report as well.

Now, she is the symbol of Congress' acceptance of its past blunder. When confronted with voters' grouses, she blames the Jayalalithaa government for all ills and reminds them that Karunanidhi provided buses to villages. K S Rajeswaran, a former member of Tamil Manila Congress PCC when GK Moopanar split the Congress, runs the campaign in the area.

He is the district Congress treasurer and an AICC member. Do local Congressmen oppose Jagdeesan's candidature? "Not at all. She was exonerated by the courts. It was a politically motivated case", says Rajeswaran.

There appears no hiccup on the ground as Rajeswaran leads the entourage from one village to another. This is an upper caste Vellala Gounder dominated area. Both Jagdeesan and AIADMK candidate Palanichamy are Gounders. Jagdeesan alternates between stressing on the Congress and PMK support as she fleets across Gounder and Vanniyar pockets.

Does she feel vindicated? "Around 500 of our cadre were arrested during the emergency. Indira Gandhi came here to apologise for excesses in 1980 when we had struck an alliance with Congress.," she says. "I was not involved with the Padmanabha murder. I was sympathetic to the Sri Lankan Tamil cause. But after Padmanabha's murder Karunanidhi turned against LTTE."

The Centre's intelligence agencies after training and arming Tamil militants might have turned against them, but Tamil Elam is very much a part of Dravidian politics. And Jayalalithaa's constant reference to Sonia Gandhi cheating her dead husband by joining hands with DMK doesn't strike a chord in Tiruchengode.