Sonia happy in supporting cast

Madurai: She is a minor partner of this alliance in Tamil Nadu. Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, main draw in Madurai yesterday overshadowing every son of the soil on stage with her, has little choice but to play second fiddle here.

On the second stop of a three-city tour of the southern state that included Pondicherry and Chennai, yesterday's exercise in April's searing heat for a state assembly election was a pragmatic investment in the future. Sonia is batting for an ally to ensure the ally continues to bat for her in 2009.

"Without your support, we could not have had a government at the centre," she told a capacity crowd at this temple city's Tamukkam grounds, who had suffered every indignity to get into the ground from vigorous body frisking to sniffer dogs to baking in the sun.

But as the sea of saffron, green and red and black flags showed, it was a classic show of solidarity for the alliance with the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which has closed ranks after the shock defection of key ally V. Kopalasami, better known as Vaiko, of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazahagam (MDMK) to the All India Anna DMK camp, led by former actress-turned-consummate politician J. Jayalalitha.

"It was the DMK's 39-seat victory that made the UPA possible, that gave us the strength to form a government," Sonia told the crowd that had been waiting from 12 noon to see her. Many were women who had obviously been bussed in for the event, their brand new sarees and footwear a dead give-away, while there were others carrying placards that said "Daughter of Democracy". A Congress party official in the party office on the narrow lane leading away from the fabulous Madurai Meenakshi temple said they had mobilised people from the state's 54 districts to attend this public meeting. Hundreds had come from the neighbouring villages, many more from further afield, from Dindigul, and Sivaganga.

But with less than a fortnight to go before the make-or-break polls on May 8, it's clear that Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha continues to be far more popular than M. Karunanidhi, a former movie script writer leading the DMK. But the six-party alliance the DMK leader has forged with the Congress, the two Communist parties, the powerful Pattali Makkal Katchi that represents the Vanniyar community and the Indian Union Muslim League, can eat into her popular base.

On her own, Jayalalitha cannot win, says analyst Sam Rajappa, who adds "Vaiko is fast turning into a liability not an asset." Vaiko, the Telugu-speaking leader of MDMK, switched sides at the very last minute. The Telugu and Naicker vote that he mobilised in 2004 parliamentary election brought him a sizeable 5.6 per cent of the vote share.

Rajappa says that vote share has dwindled from 1.5 per cent to 1.2 per cent. "It is now a negative vote, he's now a handicap for Jayalalitha."

As a political entity, he's finished, adds Rajappa, who says that all the party officials who had left the DMK to form the MDMK under his leadership have been unable to support the switch over. Worse, he may not be able to explain it to the people.

Jayalalitha has tried to reclaim her popularity after an ill-advised sacking of some 182,000 bus employees as well as tens of thousands of government employees who went on strike. They were later reinstated.

Will Sonia Gandhi step in if things get ugly in a post-Karunanidhi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam?

Kubera, a Madurai jeweller with restaurants in Delhi and Chennai who was in the crowd of 30,000 at Tamu-kkam, points out how DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, a nephew of opposition leader M. Karunanidhi was translating for Sonia when the others spoke in Tamil.

"It's been decided. Karunanidhi who's now 82 and cannot even walk, will hand over to his son Stalin when he can no longer handle it. Stalin has experience, he's been mayor of Chennai thrice. Stalin will be the leader of the DMK, if anything happens to Karunanidhi, it will be Stalin who will take over."

But will he take over as chief minister, and be acceptable to the other allies as leader of the alliance when there were senior leaders like Ramadoss of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK)?

"They will have to accept it," said Kalyanasundaram, a farmer from Dindigul. "It's the DMK's decision who will be their leader, and whoever is the leader of the single largest party will be chief minister. The DMK will get more than 118 seats in 234 constituencies."

What about Dayanidhi? "Oh, he'll be happier in Delhi, that's where he has the clout. It's the division of the business, Stalin gets Tamil Nadu, Maran gets Delhi." And Sonia? "We think she's wonderful, so fair and so pretty but the Congress has no say in Tamil Nadu," says Varahalakshmi, a housewife from a village outside Madurai who had come just to see Sonia.