09-10-2007, 07:40 AM
<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> UNPA headed for early demise
K Venkataramanan/PNS | Chennai/New Delhi
Does it exist as one entity at all, wonders Jayalalithaa
With mid-term polls looking inevitable, the AIADMK has indicated an imminent parting of ways with the newly floated Third Front, a development that could come as a major boost for the NDA.
Taking a snipe at the functioning of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), a front of eight regional parties, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Sunday wondered whether the UNPA still considered her party a part of it and whether it was still one entity.
Significantly, Jayala-lithaa's remarks came within two days of her hour-long meeting with BJP leader and in-charge of Tamil Nadu Ravi Shanker Prasad.
Talking to The Pioneer, Prasad said his meeting with Jayalalithaa was a courtesy call, but he admitted they did discuss ongoing political developments at the Centre.
Sources said Prasad was dispatched by party chief Rajnath Singh to open channel of communication with possible allies in the southern State.
During her meeting with the BJP leader, Jayalalithaa expressed serious concern over growth of terrorism in southern India and the Centre's soft-peddling of the issue, sources said.
The BJP leaders feel that this itself was a major meeting ground between the two parties for a possible future alliance.
Expressing her unhappiness over the functioning of the UNPA, Jayalalithaa distanced herself from Samajwadi Party (SP) general secretary Amar Singh's statement that the UNPA would be ready to accept some other mechanism to go into the India-US civilian nuclear agreement, if the Centre was not ready to concede the Opposition demand to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Jayalalithaa denied the UNPA had taken such a stand and said Amar Singh's opinion should be treated as only that of his party and not that of the Front. Such a view had not been discussed within the UNPA and certainly not with the AIADMK, she said. "There can be only one committee or mechanism on a crucial national issue for all parties, including the ruling allies, those supporting the Government from outside and Opposition parties.
This is a national issue which cannot permit promotion of any sectional view and cannot be split into parts or atomised," she said.
Jayalalithaa was also unhappy that while the SP and the Telugu Desam Party, both constituents of the UNPA, joined the Left parties in a march against the joint Naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal, the AIADMK had not been invited, or even informed, of the programme.
"All these developments make me wonder if the AIADMK is still a part of the UNPA, or whether the UNPA continues to exist as one entity at all," she said.
The UNPA had been launched as a forum of parties maintaining equidistance from the Congress and the BJP. It had decided to abstain from the presidential election and put up its own candidate for the election of the Vice-President. However, the AIADMK had broken ranks with the Front by allowing its members to vote in the presidential election.
The AIADMK's participation in the presidential poll and its backing to the BJP nominee had raised suspicions about its loyalty to the UNPA.
There is also speculation that the UNPA is heading for an untimely break-up on the issue of who would lead it, with both Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Jayalalithaa reportedly wishing to be its leader.
K Venkataramanan/PNS | Chennai/New Delhi
Does it exist as one entity at all, wonders Jayalalithaa
With mid-term polls looking inevitable, the AIADMK has indicated an imminent parting of ways with the newly floated Third Front, a development that could come as a major boost for the NDA.
Taking a snipe at the functioning of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), a front of eight regional parties, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Sunday wondered whether the UNPA still considered her party a part of it and whether it was still one entity.
Significantly, Jayala-lithaa's remarks came within two days of her hour-long meeting with BJP leader and in-charge of Tamil Nadu Ravi Shanker Prasad.
Talking to The Pioneer, Prasad said his meeting with Jayalalithaa was a courtesy call, but he admitted they did discuss ongoing political developments at the Centre.
Sources said Prasad was dispatched by party chief Rajnath Singh to open channel of communication with possible allies in the southern State.
During her meeting with the BJP leader, Jayalalithaa expressed serious concern over growth of terrorism in southern India and the Centre's soft-peddling of the issue, sources said.
The BJP leaders feel that this itself was a major meeting ground between the two parties for a possible future alliance.
Expressing her unhappiness over the functioning of the UNPA, Jayalalithaa distanced herself from Samajwadi Party (SP) general secretary Amar Singh's statement that the UNPA would be ready to accept some other mechanism to go into the India-US civilian nuclear agreement, if the Centre was not ready to concede the Opposition demand to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Jayalalithaa denied the UNPA had taken such a stand and said Amar Singh's opinion should be treated as only that of his party and not that of the Front. Such a view had not been discussed within the UNPA and certainly not with the AIADMK, she said. "There can be only one committee or mechanism on a crucial national issue for all parties, including the ruling allies, those supporting the Government from outside and Opposition parties.
This is a national issue which cannot permit promotion of any sectional view and cannot be split into parts or atomised," she said.
Jayalalithaa was also unhappy that while the SP and the Telugu Desam Party, both constituents of the UNPA, joined the Left parties in a march against the joint Naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal, the AIADMK had not been invited, or even informed, of the programme.
"All these developments make me wonder if the AIADMK is still a part of the UNPA, or whether the UNPA continues to exist as one entity at all," she said.
The UNPA had been launched as a forum of parties maintaining equidistance from the Congress and the BJP. It had decided to abstain from the presidential election and put up its own candidate for the election of the Vice-President. However, the AIADMK had broken ranks with the Front by allowing its members to vote in the presidential election.
The AIADMK's participation in the presidential poll and its backing to the BJP nominee had raised suspicions about its loyalty to the UNPA.
There is also speculation that the UNPA is heading for an untimely break-up on the issue of who would lead it, with both Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Jayalalithaa reportedly wishing to be its leader.