With elections scheduled for May 13 in TN and Puducherry, this Rajya Sabha MP faces the unpleasant task of choosing between his father and father-in-law.
To be, or not to be: that is the question: Hamlet’s famous words may well be running through the mind of Anbumani Ramadoss, the Union minister for health and family welfare.
With elections scheduled for May 13 in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, this Rajya Sabha MP faces the unpleasant task of choosing between his father and father-in-law. While his father wants to distance himself from the Congress-DMK coalition, the Congress is trying its best to keep PMK in its fold. The minister is married to Sowmiya, the daughter of former Tamil Nadu Congress president M Krishnaswamy.
Since elections are a while off, it’s not clear yet how coalitions will take shape and parties are going overboard to woo each other. The erstwhile DPA of 2004 had a motley combination of DMK (16), Congress (10), PMK (5), MDMK (4), CPI (2) and CPM (2), that swept the 39 seats at stake. The PMK also added the Puducherry seat to its tally for a bargaining hand in the UPA.
That coalition is now in a shambles. The MDMK broke off soon as elections were over after a fall out between party founder Vaiko and DMK chief M Karunanidhi. The Left took leave after the Indo-US nuke deal and the PMK has, since, been trying to sail on two boats. It aligned with the MDMK and VCK on the Sri Lankan Tamil platform, and continued to remain with the UPA even as it distanced itself from the DMK in the state.
Even though Ramadoss visited Karunanidhi while the latter was in hospital, they have been casting aspersions on each other.
Ramadoss has been a hard bargainer and has always stayed with the winning combination, shifting loyalties to suit his own ends. Having strained ties with the DMK beyond repair, Ramadoss is expected to announce his alliance with AIADMK soon.
But Ramadoss’ moves haven’t been as smooth as he would have expected. His son’s marital connections to the Congress are putting up unexpected hurdles. So far, Ramadoss has been putting off his coalition decision, but is expected to announce his stand at party meeting on Thursday.
Significantly, Anbumani met Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel in on Tuesday in the presence of his father-in-law Krishnaswamy and TNCC president KV Thangkabalu. Karunanidhi has conveniently left out PMK out of his coalition strategy and stated that the DMK coalition at present includes the Congress, VCK, IUML and another minority party.
The adage ‘politics makes for strange bedfellows’ is apt for Tamil Nadu. The PMK was once accused of murdering an AIADMK worker. Now, it has become a friend need. Ramadoss is reported to have struck a deal of seven seats plus a bonus RS candidacy with the AIADMK.
Ever since he became minister, Anbumani has become a pawn in his father’s hands. But this is quite another matter and one wonders what he will decide.
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