Friction in Pondy Cong-DMK ties may disturb friendship in Tamil Nadu

Chennai

If sources in the parties are to be believed, DMK functionaries in the union territory might be pushing their high command to snap ties with the Congress there. DMK leaders in Puducherry were apprehensive that the national party was divided and the internal squabbles were certain to scuttle their chances in the ensuing Assembly polls.

Even the recent meeting between DMK president MK Stalin and Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy was also believed to have been organised to iron out the differences between the two parties in Puducherry.

Puducherry politics was learnt to have been the agenda of an earlier meeting between Stalin and AICC in charge of Tamil Nadu Dinesh Gunda Rao. A Congress insider who admitted to the alliance suffering disharmony in the union territory, categorically ruled out snapping of ties even in the union territory and said the leadership of both parties were not even remotely considering a fracture in either states as it could affect the coordination in poll work in both the states.

A DMK senior unwilling to be named dismissed the idea of snapping ties in Puducherry as just ambitious thinking of a few party functionaries there and said that Stalin might lend ears to the party functionaries from Puducherry, but he was not willing to even give divorce any serious thought.

Probably, the leadership could improvise the dicey situation in Pondy and drive a hard bargain in Tamil Nadu and the union territory during seat sharing talks, the DMK senior added. Officially, both parties have dismissed the friction between the parties as media speculation.