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TN BJP leaders say Jaya is willing to strike but afraid to wound

Syed Firdaus Ashraf, lately in Gandhinagar

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from Tamil Nadu are of the view that despite all her sparring, All India Anna DMK general secretary J Jayalalitha will not withdraw her party's support to the A B Vajpayee government at the Centre. It is a political compulsion for her to support the BJP, they insist.

BJP's vice-president O Rajagopal told Rediff On The NeT, "Jayalalitha cannot afford to have a Congress-led government at the Centre since that will be more harmful to her. I feel her interest will be served only if the BJP government functions smoothly. So I am confident that she won't withdraw support to our government."

Jayalalitha had shaken the BJP to the core even before it assumed office by insisting first that her foe-turned-friend Subramanian Swamy be inducted into the Union Cabinet and later by seeking the dismissal of some Union ministers and the use of Article 356 against the Tamil Nadu government. It has been an even game so far: while the government refused to yield to her on Dr Swamy and Article 356, it has sacked a reluctant Buta Singh. Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Jaswant Singh has already made two trips to Madras to pacify who is clearly a truculent ally.

"The history of Tamil politicians shows that they keep demanding more from their allies, even if they are in lesser numbers. For instance, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allowed the downfall of the Gujral government rather than keeping their own MPs out of the ministry," says a BJP MP from Tamil Nadu.

"Her main concern is the ouster of the Karunanidhi government, since 80 per cent of the cases framed against her are by the state government. She feels threatened that if the corruption charges are proved against her in court, it will be ta-ta to her political future."

The BJP has stated that all the cases against Jayalalitha will be decided in court. And officially, Jayalalitha has also stated that she will prove her innocence in court.

Another viewpoint expressed by a BJP general secretary was that Jayalalitha is extremely insecure about her friends since she has always been betrayed by her friends and relatives. "From her childhood, she always has been a harassed child. Everyone close to her, including her aunt, have betrayed her. So, she has developed an attitude of mistrust in her," he said.

The BJP leaders also felt that Jayalalitha never dumps her political friends until they dump her first. "Jayalalitha dumped the Congress and formed an alliance with the BJP because the Congress dumped and disowned her after she lost badly in the 1996 assembly and parliamentary elections," says C P Radhakrishnan, the BJP MP from Coimbatore.

Recalling the incident in 1980 after M G Ramachandran lost the general election badly -- Indira Gandhi in alliance with M Karunanidhi won 37 out of the state's 39 parliamentary seats -- Radhakrishnan says, "When Indira Gandhi came to power in 1980, Karunanidhi told her to dismiss the MGR government without any substantial reason. I feel that politics in Tamil Nadu is more cinema-oriented where each party member wants to finish off the opponent by hook or by crook."

Adds Rajagopal, "I am confident that trust will develop between the BJP and Jayalalitha, once the 18-party coordination committee meets up with her on a regular basis."

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