Blow for Cong as PMK set to join AIADMK camp

CHENNAI: The Pattali Makkal Katchi has decided to cross over to the AIADMK camp, dealing yet another blow to Congress hopes of stitching up strong regional alliances.
A last-ditch effort by senior Congress leaders in Delhi to retain its Tamil Nadu ally failed on Tuesday with the PMK conveying its inability to campaign along with the DMK, which leads the combination in the state, sources close to PMK founder S Ramadoss said.

A formal announcement on the PMK's decision is expected only on Thursday when its general council meets here, sources said. Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss met senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel in Delhi on the alliance question, and later said, "We discussed the alliance. Nothing has been finalised."

Sources here said the PMK had accepted the AIADMK's offer of seven Lok Sabha seats and support for a Rajya Sabha nomination for A Ramadoss in the next biennial polls. The party's ties with the DMK had reached a point of no return as bitterness between their cadres and mutual distrust at the leadership level was high, sources said.

Congress has not given up trying to keep the PMK in its fold with sources saying that it was going to hold one more round of talks with the PMK leadership in a desperate bid to keep the Vanniyar outfit inside the UPA tent.

The party's anxiety to keep the PMK from switching camps came off clearly when Sonia Gandhi was asked to comment on the possibility of loss of another ally after the collapse of the UPA in Bihar. "As of now there is no change," she said, the remark reflecting the party's fear as well as the flickering hope.

But M Karunanidhi, the lead player in the TN alliance, had already given up on the Vanniyar outfit. Hours after Anbumani's meeting with Patel, the DMK chief lashed out at PMK founder S Ramadoss for the first time in several months, in what could defeat Congress's hopes of saving the alliance.
In sharp remarks on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, Karunanidhi mocked the PMK boss, "Of late, the saviours of Tamils are no more talking of Mullaitivu or Kilinochchi, but are busy discussing seats like Tiruchi, Tirunelveli." Karunanidhi had dropped a hint on Monday night that the PMK was on the way out by leaving out the party's name from a list of allies he named.

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