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Congress plays down Jaya's absence from Sonia's rally

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

The Congress is playing down the absence of All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha from the joint rally of the two parties at Villupuram, Tamil Nadu, yesterday.

Jayalalitha and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were supposed to address the rally. But while Gandhi reached the venue on time, Jayalalitha failed to turn up. AIADMK workers claimed that she had been delayed at election meetings en route.

"These things happen during campaigning," Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal said. "I don't understand why such a fuss is being made about it."

"For security reasons, Sonia Gandhi had to fly out by 1800 hours [IST] in her helicopter. And Congress officials got a message at 1600 hours that Jayalalitha was held up by her own party workers and would not [be able to] reach before 1730 hours. Since it did not make sense for Gandhi to address the rally for only half an hour, she began the rally on her own," explained Sibal.

Reports, however, indicate that Jayalalitha, who was in Madras, a good three-hour drive away, did not even leave for her own rally till about 1530 IST, by which time it was obviously too late to drive down to Villupuram even if she had skipped all her meetings en route. Sibal denied any knowledge of this.

Instead, the Congress spokesman drew an analogy with the Bharatiya Janata Party. "In 1998, veteran BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was to address a rally along with Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray at Shivaji Park in Bombay. Thackeray lives only a couple of kilometres away from the venue. Yet he did not turn up and Vajpayee had to address the meeting alone. How come no questions were raised then?"

Sibal's last statement was off the mark. The media had speculated wildly even then about Thackeray's absence from the rally, wondering whether there was some ill-feeling between the partners.

The senior Supreme Court lawyer, however, refused to bite the bait and insisted that all was well between the partners. "Just wait and see, they will address a rally shortly," he promised. But he was unable to give a date for such a joint rally or even confirm if any has been planned. The Villupuram rally was the only joint rally scheduled for the two women leaders.

Meanwhile, political pundits are busy reading meaning into the absence of the 'Puratchi Thalaivi' (Revolutionary Leader), who had teamed up with her old ally only recently during the no-confidence motion that defeated the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in the Lok Sabha.

Congress politicians have time and again insisted that the party does not believe in forming coalition governments, a stand that has been repeated in its manifesto. The party says coalitions are inherently unstable and has attacked the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance on this very score.

Moreover, Sonia Gandhi too has said her party would not form a government with any alliance partner. When asked whether this meant the AIADMK and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav would be excluded from a possible Congress government, she said the party would cross the bridge when it came to it.

"This perhaps did not go down too well with Jayalalitha," said a Congress official, "so she was trying to convey a message to the Congress by staying away from the rally with Gandhi."

But another political observer insisted that despite the Congress rhetoric about avoiding alliances, it has secretly agreed to set up a coalition including both Jayalalitha and Laloo Prasad Yadav.

Another reason cited for Jayalalitha's absence is the statement by senior Congress politician Manmohan Singh. The former finance minister had said on a television show that the law must take its course on corruption cases against politicians.

Jayalalitha faces a slew of cases on charges of corruption. She has already been indicted in some, while hearings in others are continuing.

What might have upset the mercurial Tamil politician is that Singh also criticised the BJP-led government for going soft on the cases against Jayalalitha when she was part of the coalition. Observers and Congress officials believe this statement could have touched a raw nerve.

Dr Singh has denied any subtle hints in his statements. "I only said the law must take its own course regardless of who the person is, and I stand by what I said," he declared.

But he had no answer when asked why his own party went slow on the cases against Jayalalitha when she was supporting the Congress government from 1991 to 1996.

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