JOIN USThe battle between the DMK and the BJP to woo the Vijayakanth-led DMDK to their respective camps intensified with both the parties making desperate efforts to strike a deal ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Even as state BJP president Pon Radhakrishnan sounded confident about striking a deal with Vijayakanth, the equally aggressive DMK led by its president and former chief minister M Karunanidhi is sending emissaries from their allied parties to ensure the DMDK ends up in their cammp.
Asked about the possibility of the DMDK-BJP alliance, Radhakrishnan said: "certainly our party representatives have spoken in this regard. The out come of the discussions are positive and we are confident that the alliance will take place.”
He also added that the DMDK could retain its identity as an alternative to the Dravidian parties in the state if it allies with the BJP.
The BJP, without an ally in the state so far, feels the DMDK has a proven vote share of 10 per cent in the 2009 Lok Sabha and 2011 Assembly elections.
BJP general secretary Muralidhar Rao also made efforts to reach out to Vijayakanth by meeting his wife Premalatha and brother-in-law L K Sudheesh in Chennai recently.
DMK leaders M Karunanidhi and his son M K Stalin, meanwhile, have offered enough indications that they would like a deal with the DMDK, calling for better understanding between the parties.
While Karunanidhi said, “We have invited the DMDK to have an alliance with us as per our formalities,” Stalin has said the party would be happy if DMDK joins the DMK-led alliance and he would welcome it.
Recently, Karunanidhi even went to the extent of declaring that he would sack his older son Alagiri for his statement against Vijayakanth in a private television interview.