Rahul Gandhi Snubs Karunanidhi, Flirts With AIADMK

In the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) book, Congress’s Rahul Gandhi is a repeat offender. He never calls on M Karunanidhi when he sets foot on Tamil Nadu soil. Understandably this is perceived as an insult to the senior most politician in Tamil Nadu, more so when his party is the Congress ally in the state.

In recent memory, the Congress vice-president has done this twice. First when he flew into Chennai on October 7 to enquire about Jayalalithaa’s health after she was admitted to Apollo Hospitals on September 22. The second time on December 6, when Rahul attended the last rites of the former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

That those in the DMK point out that Kauvery Hospital in Mylapore area of Chennai, where Karunanidhi was admitted till December 7, is located en route Chennai Airport and that Rahul could have easily dropped in to enquire about his health, shows the extent of irritation with the Gandhi scion. They feel aggrieved more because the 92-year-old Karunanidhi has been ailing for a considerable period of time and is, according to sources, not in the best of health. 

In Gandhi’s defence, it must be said that he had good reason not to visit the ailing Karunanidhi after attending Jayalalithaa’s last rites. It is not considered the right thing to do, to meet anyone after going to a funeral. 

Congress leaders have defended their leader saying he did enquire with Kanimozhi about her father’s health. But DMK leaders suspect Rahul Gandhi’s impolite conduct is deliberate and designed to send across a political message. That he does not quite agree with his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s theory that the DMK is their natural ally in Tamil Nadu.  

What then is the Congress strategy in Tamil Nadu? 

From all indications, it looks like Rahul Gandhi has decided to put the Congress eggs in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) basket. The Sasikala basket to be more precise. The three Congress leaders – Rahul, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Tamil Nadu Congress chief S Thirunavukkarasu – were seated alongside M Natarajan, the husband of Jayalalithaa’s close confidante Sasikala. Natarajan was persona non grata for Jaya and she not only threw him out of her Poes Garden residence, but also issued a diktat to AIADMK partymen warning anyone from having any truck with him. The optics at the burial gave a peep into the math working out in Rahul Gandhi’s mind. 

Natarajan comes with an unsavoury reputation in Tamil Nadu’s political circles. Reliable sources say he has been reaching out both to the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party for the past couple of months. While he seems to have managed to get Rahul on to his side, he has not been able to get an appointment with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. At Rajaji Hall, Tamil Nadu BJP leader L Ganesan was seen introducing Natarajan to the PM. 

It is not just DMK leaders who are miffed with Rahul Gandhi tilting towards the Sasikala camp in AIADMK. Even Congress leaders say this will be like euthanasia for a party that is already half dead in Tamil Nadu. They point out that Sasikala had been asked to keep away from her family by Jayalalithaa. On Tuesday, all of them occupied every inch around the glass casket in which Jayalalithaa’s body was kept at Rajaji Hall.

“How do you expect us to go and stand before Sasikala? She has no public support, there is so much revulsion for her,” said a senior Congress leader. 

Congress leaders say Thirunavukkarasu is the reason why Rahul Gandhi is altering the Congress party’s political settings in Tamil Nadu. Thirunavukkarasu and Natarajan go back a long way, hail from the same Thevar caste, a dominant OBC caste in Tamil Nadu. The Congress chief has also played musical chairs in his political career, having been with the Jayalalithaa faction of the AIADMK in 1987. He subsequently was with the BJP as well. 

The Congress also is perhaps, just like the BJP, looking at the AIADMK as poach-worthy political material. Both expect that sooner or later, the ruling party will crumble under the weight of internal caste-based rivalries and both want to position themselves to take advantage at that juncture. The Congress will look at Jayalalithaa’s demise not just as an end of an era, it will also see it as the end of its marginalisation in Tamil Nadu. 

The argument in Gandhi’s favour would be that even if the DMK comes to power next, it won’t make the Congress a part of its government. Which explains why the Congress may want to explore a non-DMK route to Fort St George, even if that takes longer. 

But don’t rule out the possibility of Natarajan using Gandhi to show to the BJP that the AIADMK under Sasikala has an option. He can then use it to drive a hard bargain with the BJP, should such a situation arise. 

While it is certain that a political realignment in Tamil Nadu is on the cards, Congressmen are worried that if his gamble does not pay off, Gandhi may well be writing the party’s epitaph in the state.