When Manmohan Singh demonstrated his negotiation expertise in Tamil Nadu

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi with then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh within the 12 months 2011. File
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association

Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in 2011. File
| Picture Credit score:
M. Vedhan

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, broadly often known as an eminent economist, had a side that was comparatively much less talked about — he was a skilful negotiator in seat sharing, that too with strong-willed leaders akin to Jayalalithaa of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and M. Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). 

Within the run-up to the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, Dr. Singh, accompanied by Kerala’s former Chief Minister A.Okay. Antony, visited Chennai a number of occasions to carry talks with Jayalalithaa, and almost 5 years later, with Karunanidhi, on his personal. On each events, he, as a key emissary of the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, succeeded in getting an honest variety of Lok Sabha seats for his celebration, regardless of the opposite facet being robust in giving freely the seats initially. As the previous PM was aware of his celebration’s diminished energy in Tamil Nadu, particularly after the formation of Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) in April 1996, he knew that not like in lots of different States, the Congress needed to play the position of a junior associate to both of the Dravidian forces.

Nonetheless, in 1999, the principle job for Dr. Singh lay in manouvering the celebration to a place of relative consolation, as in spite of everything, between 1984 and 1996, the Congress contested in two-thirds of Lok Sabha constituencies — popularly referred to as MGR’s method (named after the AIADMK’s founder M.G. Ramachandran) — within the firm of the AIADMK. However, when the celebration confronted the voters in 1998 for the primary time, with out the assist of the 2 Dravidian forces since 1971, it drew a clean and secured about 4.8% of the votes polled. Extra importantly, it forfeited deposit in all of the 35 seats it contested, together with in Nagercoil (now referred to as Kanniyakumari), a conventional stronghold.  

The election in 1999 was necessitated by a mixture of things, the principle being the AIADMK’s withdrawal of assist to the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP)-led regime, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, earlier that 12 months. Additionally, a number of weeks earlier than Vajpayee’s ministry was voted out of energy by the Lok Sabha, Jayalalithaa and Sonia Gandhi met at a tea celebration hosted by Subramanian Swamy, who was the then president of the Janata Celebration.

When Dr. Singh and Mr. Antony met Jayalalithaa for 90 minutes at her Poes Gardens residence on June 3, 1999, the previous PM described the talks as “frank, cordial discussions” about electoral changes for the Lok Sabha polls. At the moment, the DMK and the BJP had additionally come collectively. Dr. Singh displayed his understanding of the political scenario of Tamil Nadu, when he noticed that “Tamil Nadu is thought for its rationalist and secular outlook and the individuals of Tamil Nadu will decide.” The primary challenge between the 2 sides was over the variety of seats. Jayalalithaa was keen to half with no more than 5 seats, as talked about in a report of The Hindu on June 27, 1999, whereas the Congress thought-about it too few and it was eager on going again to the MGR’s method. She had supplied to set aside 15 seats if the Congress managed to usher in the TMC(M) to the alliance. Ultimately, Jayalalithaa allotted 12 seats to the Congress even with out the TMC(M).  The nationwide celebration had bagged three seats together with Puducherry.

The next years noticed the ties of the AIADMK and the Congress getting deteriorated. Jayalalithaa had once more performed the “foreigner” card in opposition to Ms. Gandhi. In January 2004, the Congress chief had deputed solely Dr. Singh to carry talks with Karunanidhi, who had simply then stop the BJP-led Nationwide Democratic Alliance (NDA).  

Stating that the thought behind his assembly with the DMK president was to “set up a relationship of mutual belief and confidence” between the 2 events, the previous PM expressed the hope that it was additionally “to put in writing a brand new chapter within the historical past of the nation.” His assertion assumed significance because the DMK and the Congress stitched collectively an electoral alliance after a niche of 24 years. The Congress, which was given 10 seats as a part of the DMK-led alliance, bagged all of them, on the strains of how all its allies had carried out.