By Prashant Sood, IANS,
New Delhi : The 2G corruption row was “not a factor” in the Tamil Nadu polls, says DMK leader T.K.S. Elangovan, adding the Congress would not embrace the AIADMK that Monday took power in the state.
“It was not a factor or (even) a minor factor,” Elangovan, the DMK spokesman, told IANS on telephone from Chennai, when asked if teh spectrum allocation scandal played a role in the DMK’s crushing defeat.
A veteran of Tamil Nadu politics, Elangovan said he had no clue why the DMK was trounced so badly in the assembly election.
“It is difficult to find out the reasons. I don’t know why it happened. People need a performing government and we performed well. All sections (of the society) benefited while people had suffered a lot during the (earlier) governments led by Jayalalithaa,” he said.
The AIADMK-led coalition’s sweeping win — party leader J. Jayalalitha has become chief minister for a third time — has led to speculation about new political alignments.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has already called up Jayalalithaa to congratulate her.
Asked about a possible realignment of forces in Tamil Nadu, Elangovan expressed confidence that the Congress would not go with the AIADMK.
“I don’t think the Congress will prefer the AIADMK. She (Jayalalithaa) is the most unreliable ally,” he said.
Asked if the party was feeling let down by the Congress, whose ally the DMK is at the centre, Elangovan said the polls were for the state assembly and not for parliament.
“It was not an election for the central government, (it was to be decided) how our leaders performed and how Jayalalithaa performed,” he said.
Elangovan said the spectrum controversy had little or no impact.
Former union communications minister A. Raja of the DMK is in jail in connection with the scam. DMK MP Kanimozhi, who is also the daughter of outgoing chief minister M. Karunanidhi, has been named an accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“Even in Raja’s Lok Sabha constituency of Nilgiris, we won two of the four assembly seats. (2G) was not a reason. Beyond that what happened, we will find out,” he said.
Elangovan, who is an MP from Chennai North, said party leaders would be exonerated in the 2G case.
But he insisted that his party’s image was “tarnished by the media”.
He also said that corruption was not an issue in the Tamil Nadu elecltion as Jayalalithaa had herself faced corruption cases.
Elangovan evaded a direct reply when asked if the poll outcome would make it difficult to herald a generational change in the DMK’s top echelons.
“That is a different question. We will see,” he said, adding the party would not let Karunanidhi retire.
He said DMK cadres were upset with the election result but not demoralised.
“The results were surprising even for the people of Tamil Nadu.”
Elangovan said DMK will call a meeting of its candidates to know their feedback on “how we failed”.
He said the party expected to win 75-80 seats and its alliance to win about 140 seats. DMK could win only 23 of the 119 seats it contested while its ally Congress got five seats and the PMK three.
The AIADMK alliance swept the polls, winning 203 of 234 assembly seats.
(Prashant Sood can be contacted at [email protected])