Is the Congress-DMK war drawing to an end?

With the coming UNHRC session expected to be the setting for demands for a resolution against Sri Lanka and a simultaneous whipping up of sentiments over the Tamil issue, the war between the Congress and the DMK in Tamil Nadu may be over soon.

While there are wide rumours that AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa may lead the next round of pro-Tamil agitations from the front, sections in the Congress believe that this could be a window of opportunity to gain some brownie points among Tamils, with a strong position on Sri Lanka's treatment of the community. That appears to have led to a revival of talks with the DMK.

A report in The Times of India says the hostilities between the two parties, at a peak since former Minister Kanimozhi's arrest, have cooled off in the past month.

Karunanidhi. AFP.

"Sources said DMK could demand relief for party patriarch M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi in the "trumped up" money laundering case against her as well as a tough stand by India against Sri Lanka on the Tamil issue at United Nations Human Rights Council session in March," said the report.

In December, Karunanidhi had declared that the Congress was now persona non grata, before going on to praise Narendra Modi. The BJ P, however, said it had no inclination to seek the DMK's support in the southern state.

Alongside the apparent warming up between the two parties, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met Karunanidhi last week and declared that the two parties, together for decades, can never be at war for long. Meanwhile, reports indicated  that the DMK may be a divided house about the alliance possibility -- M. K Stalin remains opposed to such a move. he prefers a tie-up with the DMDK, said the report, adding that he also stayed away from the meeting with Azad.

A multi-cornered fight in TN could benefit the AIADMK, it is believed, and Stalin too is said to believe that a tie-up with the DMDK and other smaller Dalit parties and workers' parties would reap some rewards. The problem, however, is that such an alliance lacks a prime ministerial candidate, a position rival Jayalalithaa has long aspired to.

If the DMK supports the Congress in February's Rajya Sabha poll, it could be a sign of things to come.