Chennai: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled luncheon meeting with AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa at the latter's Poes Garden residence here tomorrow has set off speculation about the beginning of a revival of alliance between the two parties.
Modi will be in the city on Monday to take part in the 37th annual day celebrations of Tamil magazine Tughlaq, run by journalist-political satirist Cho Ramaswamy.
The BJP leader has been invited for lunch by Jayalalithaa, who had described him as a "friend."
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad will also attend the luncheon meeting, which falls on Bogi, the first day of Pongal festivities in Tamil Nadu.
Guarded on his response to whether the BJP and AIADMK will strike an alliance, BJP state president L Ganesan merely said the two parties shared similar views on several issues, including the controversial Sethusamudram project and the Indo-US nuclear deal.
In the wake of the recent victories of BJP in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, Jayalalithaa have been more vocal in praising Modi's leadership.
Congratulating Modi after the results of Gujarat Assembly elections, she had remarked that "your spectacular victory has brought hope and cheer to the vast majority of people who now believe that Indians can still be saved from the clutches of unscrupulous power-mongers."
This remark is seen as an apparent reference to the Congress.
The former chief minister sprang a surprise in 1998 by forging an alliance with the BJP, hitherto a non-entity in Tamil Nadu, and won a considerable number of seats.
However, the political wedlock turned sour within a year and the AIADMK withdrew its support, leading to the collapse of the 13-month-old Vajpayee Government.
Though the AIADMK and the BJP came together for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the defeat the alliance suffered drove a wedge between the two parties.
Realising that the ties with the BJP was not paying rich dividends and was also eroding the party's minority vote bank, the AIADMK leader tactically distanced herself from the saffron party.
However, after her attempts to lead the UNPA popularly known as the Third Front failed to fructify, Jayalalithaa seems to have adopted a soft approach towards the BJP, which reflected in the 2007 Presidential elections.
Though the UNPA decided to abstain from the election, AIADMK MPs and MLAs, barring Jayalalithaa, cast their votes in what is seen as a cross voting in favour of BJP nominee Bhairon Singh Shekawat.
However, a senior AIADMK leader said: "Amma will take into consideration various factors, including the plummeting popularity of the Congress and its recent poll debacle, before deciding on the electoral alliance."
Comments
0 comment