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Jaya's MPs will boycott Parliament

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham members of both Houses of Parliament are most likely to boycott the Budget session commencing on Friday.

The four-member Pattali Makkal Katchi may also join the boycott, pending a final decision on the future of the alliance.

Indications are that the AIADMK parliamentary group is likely to meet in Madras either on Friday or on Saturday, to take stock of the evolving political situation, and help party chief J Jayalalitha take a decision on the future of their ties with the A B Vajpayee government.

Parliamentary group leader Sedapatti R Muthiah confirmed the possibility of a meeting to the media at the AIADMK headquarters in Madras on Thursday afternoon, but would not say beyond that.

Though a section of the media has said that Ranjan Bhattacharya, foster son-in-law of Prime Minister Vajpayee, who holds no party or government post, will be in Madras on Friday for a meeting with Jayalalitha, no confirmation is available as yet. Neither the BJP leaders in Madras and Delhi, nor senior AIADMK leaders were aware of such a meeting, though sources claim that the "information came from the highest persona involved". If true, it could be a letdown for Jayalalitha, in the BJP's eyes.

According to sources, the AIADMK has not exactly given up the earlier strategy of withdrawing its ministers first, and then its support to the Vajpayee government in stages. "Only the time-schedule has been pushed back, but we are not sure when the clock will start ticking again," says the source.

"A lot will depend on what the BJP has to say, and to offer," he says, adding, "The AIADMK MPs in particular are being detained at Madras only to guarantee against 'poaching' when Parliament takes up the Finance Bill and the Budget for passage."

According to PMK sources, the party is weighing its future options still, before taking a final decision."We can afford to wait for a while without antagonising the AIADMK, before we take a decision," says the source, adding, "We do not want to be left in the lurch, like the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazagham ally, should the AIADMK patch up with the BJP, or their ongoing tussle leads to fresh polls."

He, however, feels the party would still opt for the BJP if the continuance of the Vajpayee government could be ensured, whatever the AIADMK decision.

In an unrelated but a possibly influencing development, the Central Bureau of Investigation announced on Friday, the seizure of a bank locker held by R Bhaskaran, a kin of Sasikala Natarajan, Jayalalitha's confidante. Bhaskaran, working at the Reserve Bank of India in Madras, has been charged with holding 80 gold biscuits valued at Rs 5 million in the locker, and the seizure was effected on June 24.

Simultaneously, the AIADMK also has cause to worry over the decision of Madras high court Chief Justice M L Liberhan, rescheduling a crucial case involving Jayalalitha and others.

Coopting a new judge in the place of Justice D Raju who has been transferred on elevation, Liberhan ordered on Wednesday that the hearing in the reopened case of Jayalalitha -- seeking the squashing of the special courts against her -- would be completed by the month-end.

An AIADMK leader, without referring to the pending cases, says, "The BJP leadership has been going back on its promises to us. They are also unfaithful allies, as Amma pointed out. They have been in constant touch with the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham in Tami Nadu, and we are convinced they are prompting the state government to harass us even further."

"The situation could change tomorrow." That was how PMK founder S Ramadoss interjected when Union Petroleum Minister Vazhapadi Ramamurthy told the media that the AIADMK would not withdraw support to the Vajpayee government.

That was on Wednesday evening, outside Jaya's Poes Garden home. A journalist in the crowd, waiting under the open sky since morning for the momentous occasion, wanted to know: did he literally mean tomorrow, as in the next day. "Tomorrow, or the next day," the doctor said, smiling.

But he was proved wrong, sooner than later. And Ramadoss did not have to wait till "tomorrow or the next day". Even before the day was out, Jaya issued a statement, distancing herself and her party from what Ramamurthy in particular had said.

According to sources close to Ramamurthy, Jaya was peeved at two things. One, she did not approve of Ramamurthy going to the media. Either, he had robbed her of whatever media mileage possible at the critical hour, or yielded too much ground to the BJP, for the latter to ignore the AIADMK's threats completely from now on. Or both.

Secondly, the AIADMK leadership did not seem to relish Ramamurthy distancing himself from that party.

Answering a question whether he too faced the kind of non-co-operation that he said the AIADMK ministers were facing, he shot back, "I am not an AIADMK minister." The AIADMK leadership construed meanings that were not meant to be in it, according to sources close to Ramamurthy.

While at the meeting, it is said, both Ramamurthy and Ramadoss sought to impress upon Jaya and her aides that no useful political purpose would be served by the group withdrawing support to the Vajpayee government. Ramamurthy, in particular, seemed to have told her that the Congress was not exactly ready to form an alternative government.

Both came out of the meeting with the impression that they had convinced Jaya and her aides, and all was now rosy for the Vajpayee government. But they had reservations about their future in a Congress-AIADMK combine, particularly if the TMC joins in.

Now, with Jayalalitha contradicting him in public, and sort of pulling him up as well, Ramamurthy is said to be a vexed man. He lost no time in taking the first flight to Delhi on Thursday morning, where he will be away from the prying media of his native Madras.

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