When DMK and AIADMK came close to merging

It would have been possible had former Union Minister and ex-Odisha CM Biju Patnaik's efforts paid off

In the current days, the DMK and the AIADMK, the two biggest local parties in Tamil Nadu, are bitter rivals. Each tries to one-up the other, and the efforts have intensified as the Assembly election inch ever closer.

But there was a time when the two parties would have become a single party, had former Union Minister and ex-Odisha CM Biju Patnaik's efforts paid off.

According to a report by The News Minute, the episode occurred in September 1979, just years after the Emergency. At the time, the Central government was in turmoil as Indira Gandhi had rescinded support to Charan Singh's government, forcing him to resign and take up the post of caretaker Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, AIADMK's MG Ramachandran was two years into his stint as the CM of Tamil Nadu. His party had lent support to Charan Singh and was in talks with Gandhi as the shadow of a general election loomed overhead. But when a meeting between the two parties failed, Patnaik entered the picture.

The former Union Minister had been the Minister of Steel for Moraji Desai's and Charan Singh's governments and held good relations with M Karunanidhi, the DMK chief. He brought up the idea of merging the DMK with AIADMK to Karunanidhi, saying that it was Ramachandran who suggested it and sought Karunanidhi's terms, the report said.

To Patnaik's elation, Karunanidhi's terms were simple: The merged entity would retain the DMK name with AIADMK's flag. MGR would be the CM and Karunanidhi would be the head of the merged entity.

Pleased with the terms, Patnaik arranged for a meeting between MGR and Karunanidhi at the Chepauk Guest House in Chennai. Over there, MGR and Karunanidhi held a one-on-one meeting, and after agreeing to the terms, decided to convene an emergency executive council meeting the next day, to pass resolutions on the merger.

However, when the meeting occurred, MGR did not mention the merger, but the DMK came under attack from his ministers.

Over three decades after the failed meeting, the DMK chief said that MGR's cabinet minister Panruti Ramachandran played spoilsport to the merger. While the meeting with MGR was cordial, “he left for Vellore after the meeting. I do not know what happened in the car,” said Karunanidhi, and hinted that an ‘undesirable’ person who was with MGR may have turned him away, the report said.