EPS to meet PM Modi over bringing PMK-DMDK in NDA fold

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting Coimbatore on Wednesday, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami is expected to have a meeting with him, and discuss issues related to bringing into the NDA fence sitters like the PMK and the DMDK.

The Prime Minister, during the short duration visit, is scheduled to inaugurate the South Indian Natural Farming Summit in the textile city.

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Besides meeting BJP leaders from Tamil Nadu, he is expected to meet EPS as well as Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) president G K Vasan to ascertain the NDA’s poll preparedness for the upcoming assembly election.

According to BJP and AIADMK sources, the need to get in the OBC-Vanniyar dominant Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), having its shrinking support base in north Tamil Nadu, and the DMDK of late film star Vijayakant and led by his wife Premalatha, having miniscule support spread across the state, would be discussed.

Though, both the parties are yet to take a decision on the question of alliance, have been keeping their cadre in good humour by claiming that they would be part of a winning combine. And, both are pitching for a coalition government, an anathema for both the ruling DMK and the principal opposition AIADMK.

The NDA, at present, comprises the AIADMK, BJP and the TMC of Vasan. The PMK was a constituent of the NDA in the last Lok Sabha poll, but the DMDK was a partner of the AIADMK then.

Another constraint is how to accommodate the PMK, which is deeply engulfed in a family feud with the party remaining split. PMK founder Ramadoss and his son and party president at loggerheads with the former having expelled the latter and both holding rival general councils and axing each other’s loyalists.

Till now the efforts to get the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) of Vijay had not succeeded with the film star remaining firm in his opposition to the BJP, having declared it as the party’s ideological enemy, and the party reiterating that it would not have any truck with those aligned with the ‘fascist’ saffron party. Now, it remains to be seen whether the PM’s visit to the poll bound state gives the requisite impetus to the NDA.