Verdict makes DMK bankable ally

BJP state unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan, a bitter critic of the DMK, refused to go hard on the party for reasons best known to her. Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took efforts to be one of the first callers to congratulate Kanimozhi. Rahul also sent senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma to call on Kanimozhi at her New Delhi residence and express solidarity with the DMK.

Surprisingly, fewer BJP leaders cared to hit out at the DMK, while Congress veteran Kapil Sibal voluntarily defended Raja’s first come first serve policy.

Kanimozhi responded equally well by stating that the UPA was a strong alliance and party working president MK Stalin had reiterated it sufficiently. However, it did not discourage spin doctors in the saffron party to allude under condition of anonymity that they could now consider the DMK as a viable option for 2019, if not to get MPs from the state, at least to prevent the Congress from securing seats with the DMK’s support.

Within UPA, the acquittal allows the DMK to play hard ball with Congress, which can no longer arm-twist the ally citing the spectrum case, more so when the DMK is likely to emerge as the only bankable option in the entire south for the national party.

For AIADMK camp this verdict means they could no longer liberally use the 2G case against the DMK.