TN poll scene hazy as alliances remain to be finalised

As two small but significant outfits -- PMK and DMDK -- keep the two fronts led by DMK and AIADMK guessing on whom they would court for the May 13 Lok Sabha elections, the poll scenario in Tamil Nadu remains hazy.
    
After sweeping all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2004 polls, the DMK-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is aiming at replicating the spectacular show this time too.

While DMK seeks a poll tie up with its estranged partner PMK, which has significant sway among most backward Vanniyar community in northern parts, the Congress is working all out to bring DMDK, floated by actor Vijaykant, in its fold.
    
However, both PMK, which is a partner in the ruling UPA at the Centre, and DMDK are yet to reveal their minds.
    
In the AIADMK front, which includes Vaiko's Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and the Left parties, seat sharing arrangements are yet to be completed and the alliance leader Jayalalithaa is apparently awaiting a positive response from the PMK.
    
Being the chief architect of the Democratic Progressive Alliance formed for the 2007 Assembly elections, DMK president M Karunanidhi has reportedly offered PMK founder S Ramadoss six Lok Sabha seats and a Rajya Sabha seat for his son and Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

DMK sources said Ramadoss wanted seven Lok Sabha seats and a Rajya Sabha seat but Karunanidhi had expressed his inability to concede the demand.

AIADMK is said to have offered eight Lok Sabha seats alone to the PMK, known to shift its loyalties ahead of every other election.

Ramadoss had been highly critical of the DMK Government over the last two years saying his party wanted to highlight people's issues.

Conscious that the tally from Tamil Nadu would be an important element if UPA is to retain power at the centre, AICC president Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Ramadoss a fortnight ago to convince him to keep the alliance intact.

Karunanidhi, after easing out the PMK from the DPA in July last year, had entrusted the job of wooing it back to Congress, whose leaders are in regular touch with Ramadoss.

The Congress has also been negotiating with the DMDK, which proved its worth securing around eight per cent popular vote in the assembly elections contesting on its own. Party sources said DMDK would not be part of the UPA in the state.
    
"It will be only a seat sharing agreement and not an alliance. Congress will share seats with DMDK," said a senior Congress leader.

DMK sources said Ramadoss wanted seven Lok Sabha seats and a Rajya Sabha seat but Karunanidhi had expressed his inability to concede the demand.

AIADMK is said to have offered eight Lok Sabha seats alone to the PMK, known to shift its loyalties ahead of every other election.

Ramadoss had been highly critical of the DMK Government over the last two years saying his party wanted to highlight people's issues.

Conscious that the tally from Tamil Nadu would be an important element if UPA is to retain power at the centre, AICC president Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Ramadoss a fortnight ago to convince him to keep the alliance intact.
    
Karunanidhi, after easing out the PMK from the DPA in July last year, had entrusted the job of wooing it back to Congress, whose leaders are in regular touch with Ramadoss.

The Congress has also been negotiating with the DMDK, which proved its worth securing around eight per cent popular vote in the assembly elections contesting on its own. Party sources said DMDK would not be part of the UPA in the state.
    
"It will be only a seat sharing agreement and not an alliance. Congress will share seats with DMDK," said a senior Congress leader.

Congress is keen on roping in the DMDK as the fledgling party has a vote share of five per cent or more in every constituency, which would help it to fill the vaccum created by the absence of the Left parties and MDMK from the 2004
line-up.

Vijaykant, who had let his aversion to both the DMK and the AIADMK be known, had been vowing to chart his own course
since the formation of the party four years ago.

Although the party did well to secure healthy vote share, Vijaykant alone emerged successful in the Assembly elections,
winning from Vridachalam constituency in Cuddalore District.

The keenness of Congress to woo the DMDK stems from the hope that Vijaykant, who is juggling between politics and celluloid world - just returning from a shoot of his new film in Australia - would help consolidate the UPA vote share if he joins the alliance.