Jaya at the nadir!

It is being reported in newspapers and periodicals that the leaders of the ADMK and Left parties (obviously after seeking the approval of Her Highness) were seriously working for bringing actor Vijayakanth’s DMDK into the fold of their alliance and are awaiting the outcome of the parleys between the ruling DMK and PMK hoping for its breakdown so as to rope in the PMK also for their dream scheme of a ‘rainbow coalition’ or ‘grand alliance’ consisting of (so far) warring parties against the most formidable DMK-Congress Alliance, to face the Assembly elections next year. A former ADMK Minister is reported to have admitted, “Efforts are on to bring together both the PMK and the DMDK. It all depends on whether the PMK joins the DMK front or not.” A pro-Jayalalitha daily had reported that ‘she feels that having the actor’s party by her side will effectively work in wooing MGR vote bank’ because he portrays himself as ‘black MGR’.
If all these reports are true and if at all such dream of a ‘grand alliance’ works out, it is a terrific fall down for Jayalalitha’s self-acclaimed and presumed political status of being a ‘sought-after’ supremo to an ally ‘in-seeking’. Days are gone when she was imperiously seated in her Poes Garden throne and those seeking alliance with her party made to wait at the imposing gates of her palace for days together to get her audience. And finally when the gates are opened for the leaders of the prospective alliance parties, they have to reverentially sign on the dotted lines in the agreement for allocation of seats decided by her, pose for photographs and there ends of ‘the respect’ whereafter the ‘alliance leader’ has to turn into an ‘ADMK minion’. Now Jayalalitha is employing her party functionaries and leaders of alliance parties to go in search for more allies. Her ‘prestige’ is in such a nadir that she is awaiting for a party that she expects might be spurned by the DMK!
It is all due to the fall out of the growing popularity of the DMK and its government day by day, successive electoral victories of the DMK alliance in all the 11 byelections and Lok Sabha polls last year and the resultant demoralization of the ADMK rank and file.
The reaction of Jayalalitha to the latest parting of former Minister S.Muthusamy and others from her party was also unprecedented, and surprised not only political observers, but also the ADMK cadre, because they are accustomed to see their ‘Amma’ remaining stoic at the desertion of many a senior leaders and showing bravado. She used to expel whimsically any leader of whatever stature, experience and influence, at the slightest indication of ‘disloyalty’ and inclination towards the DMK. But in Muthusamy’s case, the media was agog with reports of his moves to quit the ADMK and join the DMK, for over two weeks, but unusually the Lady of Kodanadu kept low profile and did not react with her usual zest. When finally she had to face questions from the media during one of her rare ‘durbars’ at the ADMK headquarters, she was in all her politeness and said that she did not want to lose even one of her one-and-a-half crore party members (!) and that Muthusamy was welcome to meet her and pour out his grievance which could be settled. But this time it was the turn of them would-be-deserter to spurn her invite and hence she was forced to announce the foregone expulsion. She is virtually unable to stop exodus from her party. What a fall for a lady who once proclaimed such a stalwart leader Navalar V.R.Nedunchezhian as ‘fallen hair’ on his leaving the party, now craving and crawling to retain party cadre in her fold and going out of the way to seek alliance partners.
At this rate, what Thiru M.K.Alagiri repeatedly prophesies is most likely to turn true – that the ADMK will go missing from the political arena after the Assembly elections in 2011! r