Ahead of polls, DMK gets feelers from DMDK

Sources said a DMDK functionary reached out to his ‘friend’ in DMK, a State level functionary from the northern districts, to explore the possibility of a patch up for the ensuing Assembly election. The functionary wanted to know whether the DMK high command would be willing to bury the hatchet with the DMDK leadership whose political currency is at its lowest now, said a DMK insider.

A couple of other DMK leaders, too, received similar feelers, with the DMDK functionaries claiming that their youth wing head and Vijayakant’s brother-in-law LK Sudheesh was in favour of this. This despite the snubbing his party had received at the hands of DMK shortly before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, which removed any room for negotiation the party had during seat sharing talks, a DMK source noted.

The non-committal regional leaders of DMK were learnt to have silently celebrated the lack of bonhomie in the rival camp, which was shaken during the rural civic body poll seat sharing. A DMK senior who did not wish to be named described the discussions as routine exchanges happening at lower level, and added that the feelers were sent by some desperate DMDK functionaries. It was too early to take such talks seriously, the person added.

“Our alliance is very strong while the rival camp is shaky. It is too easy to respond to such personal exchanges between functionaries of two parties. Such talks happen in almost all parties except AIADMK and DMK,” the leader said, adding that the DMK high command was already concerned about accommodating existing allies without reducing its tally much.