Despite its tall claims of contesting the Tamil Nadu assembly elections on its own and branding the BJP as communal and fascist, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) of actor-turned politician is reportedly engaged in talks with the BJP’s national leadership on joining the NDA.
The fledgling TVK’s unexpected somersault comes after its fervent hopes of teaming up with the Congress turned futile, with the national party reportedly using Vijay as a bargaining chip to secure more seats with the ruling DMK. Despite Vijay’s offer of power-sharing with allies, there were no takers, and the TVK was left with no partners to fight the election.
Even though the TVK expected the Congress to sever ties with the DMK and team up with it, the dominant view in the national party was that the TVK did not have an organisational structure. “Except Vijay, the TVK has no candidate and the party lacks the requisite organisational structure,” Congress veteran and former Union Minister P Chidambaram had said recently, explaining the reason for the party not taking that risk.
Sources in the TVK said Vijay is upset at the party being left without allies and had expressed his displeasure to the party’s election management general secretary, Aadhav Arjuna, who was entrusted with the task of bringing in the Congress and other parties, as well as poaching senior leaders from other parties. The TVK thus allowed the AMMK, led by TTV Dhinakaran, and the DMDK of Premalatha Vijayakanth, which had shown interest in entering into an alliance with it, to slip away. “There is no killer instinct in the TVK leadership. Vijay had not even formed a party panel to hold official-level talks with potential allies. Rather than entrusting the task to Aadhav Arjuna, he himself should have met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi instead of remaining in his comfort zone,” observers said.
It is in this context that the TVK is believed to have opened a channel of communication with the BJP. According to reports, the BJP has made fresh moves to bring the TVK into the NDA fold at the direction of Union Home Minister and party strategist Amit Shah, who is of the view that the NDA, comprising the AIADMK and the BJP, besides other minor parties, requires a party like the TVK to effectively take on the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance. However, it remains to be seen whether Vijay, who had positioned himself as an alternative to Chief Minister MK Stalin, will accept playing second fiddle to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS), who is heading the NDA and projected as its chief ministerial face. Of late, he has refrained from criticising the BJP, while training his guns on Stalin and the DMK.