The DMK has gone into silent mode. The arrest of disgraced telecom minister A. Raja has been a bitter pill for the party to swallow. That it comes barely a day after DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi's return from the Capital, ensuring the alliance with the Congress, has surprised the party rank and file. A gloom has descended on the DMK. None from the party has reacted to the development.
Even Karunanidhi, who had been parotting that action would be taken against Raja if he was found guilty, has chosen to maintain a studied silence.
Though some senior DMK leaders maintain that it is better to face the music now rather during the polls in May, the party had hoped that the arrest would be postponed till the election was over.
What worries the DMK most is how to face the opposition onslaught during the poll campaign, in which the 2G spectrum scam would be a main plank.
The arrest has provided fresh ammunition to the opposition, and especially to AIADMK czarina Jayalalithaa. In private, party functionaries confide that the taint of corruption would certainly affect the party's prospects.
Karunanidhi's visit to the Capital was reportedly to persuade the Congress high command to delay the action against Raja.
But, his hopes were dashed as sources said home minister P. Chidambaram had briefed him about the impending arrest at Tamil Nadu Bhavan on Monday night.
What's more, while his photoop with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was widely publicised, the one with Congress president Sonia Gandhi was conspicuously not. The octogenarian was kept waiting for more than six hours for an audience with Sonia.
The DMK chief and Congress troubleshooters discussed the legal and political fallout of Raja's arrest on the upcoming polls.
Both Congress and DMK leaders maintained that the arrest would not impact their proposed electoral tie-up.
AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said the development would not have any bearing on the relations between the Congress and the DMK.
"It is absolutely no reflection on the alliance. It is continuation of a legal process," AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, adding that no one should mix up legal process and politics.
Already the spectrum scam has created fissures within Karunanidhi's family as everyone is against his daughter, Kanimozhi's, faction. But for her father, she has no one to bank on. Jayalalithaa could not have hoped for much more to take on the DMK as well as the Congress.
Her gameplan is to reinforce the notion that the DMK is corrupt to the core and with the Karunanidhi family holding sway over the party, it serves to build up public opinion. After all, the first time Karunanidhi was dismissed from power was on corruption charges. The patriarch appears rattled by this and also by her charisma to pull huge crowds. If anything, his recent utterances point to his apprehensions of losing power - so much so that he had asked his partymen to remain united or face being thrown out of power.
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