While on one front, this is a chief minister who is working strenuously to make Tamil Nadu the preferred destination for IT moghuls, it is Jayaram Jayalalithaa's political battles that are riveting.

There is every possibility she will have Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) chief Vaiko, MP, arrested under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act (POTA) as soon as he returns to Chennai from Chicago on July 12.

Jayalalithaa, according to some analysts, is trying to steer public attention to areas in which her efforts will not be questioned, and away from those areas where she is not able to find solutions.

For example, the Cauvery dispute with Karnataka, which last left nearly 150,000 agricultural labourers unemployed, because of lack of water, is one which she is finding difficult to wish away or avoid.

Her bull in a china-shop style of charging at Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna and grandly refusing to participate in any mutual discussions on the issue have been criticised all round, including by the very agriculturists she is trying to protect.

In the process of this tight-rope walking, she also has to proceed with her political programme. The announcement of the list of new ministers of the Government of India from Tamil Nadu is one of the developments she has had to deal with.

The implications of there being 10 ministers out of the total of 77 in the Government of India, in which the AIADMK does not find a place is of concern to Jayalalithaa.

The BJP which had just one minister, the late Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, now have Jana Krishnamurthy, former BJP president, Pon Radha-krishnan, Coimbatore MP and S. Thirunavukkarasu, the new entrant into the party after he merged his MGR AIADMK into the BJP.

Her arch enemy the DMK has three - Murasoli Maran, T.R. Baalu and A. Raja.

Dr Ramadoss' Pattali Makkal Katchi, which split with the AIADMK and went into the NDA camp, has two - N.T. Shanmugham and A.K. Murthy. Vaiko's Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) has two, S. Kannappan and Gingee Ramachandran.

It is against this background that Jayalalithaa last week announced her decision to proceed against Vaiko for his support to the LTTE. This is an issue which has embarrassed the BJP.

The party cannot oppose Jayalalithaa's announcement that she will arrest Vaiko when he sets foot on TN soil on his return from Chicago, for his blatant support to the LTTE which is banned in India. At the same time they would not like her to arrest one of their consistent NDA allies who has stood with them on all other matters.

Vaiko's attitude has been criticised even by the DMK which says that it will not support people who back the banned LTTE. The BJP has taken the line that invoking POTA against Vaiko is "unwarranted" although they would not categorically state that they are opposed to the move which is wholly the concern of the state government.

For the present, both Jayalalithaa's government and the MDMK are adopting a wait and watch strategy. The executive of the MDMK at a meeting, condemned Jayalalithaa's threat against Vaiko and said that their future action would be determined by the steps that the government took.

So far as Jayalalithaa is concerned, a report said: "With the centre's nod for the move to arrest the MDMK general secretary, Vaiko, not forthcoming, the Tamil Nadu government in a tactical shift, is adopting a wait and watch policy in the POTA case".

Incidentally, several other MDMK cadres who have been booked under POTA for the June 29 meeting in Tirumangalam, a suburb of Madurai, have gone underground.

As things stand, Jayalalithaa just may decide to arrest Vaiko. Such a move will force a decision on the BJP-led NDA government in New Delhi. The BJP will be forced to consider the prospect of a badly divided contingent from Tamil Nadu - which it considers is a prospective vote bank - as against a monolith ally, however undependable it may be.

Jayalalithaa is calculating on sweeping all the Lok Sabha seats from this state as and when elections are held - a not impossible target.

The BJP and RSS may decide to risk another tie-up with Jayalalithaa, jettisoning the DMK in the process. The PMK can change colour without much difficulty. Losing the MDMK would be an insignificant loss. As against this scenario, the BJP can decide to stick with the DMK and resist Jayalalithaa's overtures.