Rajnath Singh dials Stalin seeking support for NDA’s VP nominee C P Radhakrishnan

Chennai: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has reached out to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M K Stalin seeking to propose Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan as the common candidate for the Vice-President elections scheduled for September 9.

Sources told DH that Singh spoke to Stalin over the phone, but the latter didn’t give any commitment over supporting Radhakrishnan, known as CPR, who hails from Tamil Nadu. “Rajnath Singh did spoke to Stalin. The telephonic conversation didn’t end on a positive note. However, the efforts to seek the support of the DMK and its allies will continue,” a top source aware of the developments said.

Interestingly, CPR, who represented Coimbatore in Lok Sabha twice, met Stalin on August 11 ostensibly to enquire him about his health. The source also added that the High Command in Delhi is also dialing “mutual friends” of the DMK and BJP to talk to Stalin and enlist his support for CPR, who maintains friendship across the political spectrum.

The development comes amid public requests by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, TN BJP chief Nainar Nagenthiran, and former state unit chief K Annamalai to support Radhakrishnan’s candidature.

“All MPs from Tamil Nadu irrespective of the parties they represent should support CPR for simple reason that he is a Tamil,” Palaniswami told reporters in Tiruvannamalai.

Nagenthiran said the candidature of CPR is not merely a political decision, but a proud recognition for all Tamil people. “If history records that every party, rising above political boundaries, supported this honour being bestowed on a Tamil leader, it will be remembered as a milestone in healthy politics,” he said.

Annamalai said Tamil Nadu has a proud legacy of producing towering statesmen who have adorned the highest constitutional offices and cited the examples of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and R Venkataraman, who were vice-presidents first and later ascended the Presidency.

The NDA Government, at the dawn of this century, nominated India’s missile man and Tamil Nadu’s pride, Thiru A P J Abdul Kalam, for the chair of the President...At this juncture I appeal to all parties in Tamil Nadu, especially the parties in the I.N.D.I. Alliance: DMK, Congress, CPI, CPIM, VCK, IUML, KMDK and MDMK, with their members in the Parliament, to rise above partisan divides,” he added.

CPR's candidature has made the DMK to walk a tightrope between Tamil pride and its strident opposition to the BJP-RSS ideology. His nomination comes at a time when the BJP is at the receiving end of DMK’s attacks. The Dravidian party has been using every opportunity to brand the saffron party as “anti-Tamil” and accuse it of acting against the interests of the state and its distinct culture.

The DMK government and the BJP-led Centre are also locked in a tussle over the refusal of funds under Samagra Shiksha, after Tamil Nadu declined to implement a three-language policy, which the state views as a backdoor entry for Hindi.

While Tamil outreach may not be the only factor behind CPR’s nomination -- especially after the sudden resignation of incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar -- it is certainly one of the considerations, given the BJP’s concerted efforts to expand its base in Tamil Nadu.

For the DMK, the situation is a classic Catch-22. With 22 members in the Lok Sabha and 10 in the Rajya Sabha, the party will face pressure from the BJP and its ally AIADMK to support CPR, a pachai Tamizhan (true-blue Tamil), and once again prove its “love for Tamils.” But the DMK’s allies --Congress, Left, and VCK -- are unlikely to approve such a move, as they would see CPR primarily through the prism of his RSS-BJP background.

Backing Radhakrishnan solely because he hails from Tamil Nadu might also risk alienating the DMK from the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. The party currently enjoys excellent rapport with the Congress, and any deviation could strain ties within the alliance in Tamil Nadu, if not at the national level.

At the same time, opposing CPR won’t be easy either. He belongs to the dominant Gounder community of western Tamil Nadu, a region where the DMK has traditionally been weak but has recently been making concerted efforts to gain ground.

Not supporting CPR could allow the AIADMK-BJP, both strong in the region, to mount a major offensive against the ruling party.