‘Karunanidhi, like Manmohan, shows political lives always end in failure’

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has already expressed that she wants to become the Prime Minister and if the CNN-IBN CSDS polls survey is correct then she may play a key role in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

However, there may be some glitches in her path when it comes to alliance formation.

The CNN-IBN CSDS polls conducted about 10 days ago has revealed that 60 percent of Tamil Nadu's electorate is satisfied with the AIADMK government.

Even when it comes to vote shares, the poll statistics show a clear advantage for Jayalalithaa with 27 percent vote share for the AIADMK, 18 percent for DMK and 16 percent for the BJP.

Karunannidhi. Agencies.

Psephologist Sandeep Shastri said on a discussion on CNN-IBN, "Jayalalithaa is well ahead of the DMK. In Tamil Nadu, whenever there is four legged race. it works in the favour of the AIADMK."

Meanwhile, political analyst TM Veeraraghav was of the opinion that while DMK and AIADMK have always fought issue based elections, this time DMK does not have an issue to pin the Tamil Nadu CM with.

"A DMK member has recently told me that this was for the first time that Jaya has not given them an issue to campaign on. Her advantage in the election is that she has not given the opposition an issue to criticise her with and deflect support," he said.

While Jayalalithaa wants to be a part of the PM race, she has, so far, not spoken of any alliance. And Shastri said on the CNN-IBN debate that it was the alliance game that played a key role in Tamil Nadu politics.

"Alliance politics of Tamil Nadu has dramatically changed electoral results. If there is Congress-DMK or AIADMK-BJP alliance, things could change," Shastri said.

But what happens to Jayalithaa's arch rival and DMK chief M Karunanidhi?

Ramachandra Guha thinks he is someone who has destroyed his party. "Karunanidhi is an individual who is a considerable intellectual and has been chief minister several times. Yet he is a man who destroyed his party while making it a family firm," Guha said and added, "But he has tragically declined. Karunanidhi and Manmohan Singh exemplify the old adage that political life always ends in failure."

AIADMK and DMK may be the two big players in Tamil Nadu, BJP seems to have made considerable improvement in the state. Swapan Dasgupta said "This shows there is some sort of a stirring that is going undetected by the Tamil intellectuals."

"The BJP with existing allies is 19 percent ahead of the DMK, and the Congress is at 17 percent. If things change even a little, it will be alarm bells for Jayalalithaa," he said.

But will voters fall for Modi's charm?

"Voters of Tamil Nadu have always identified with strong personalities and they don't see anyone else apart from Modi in national politics," said Veeraraghav.