In the end, it was not the number but the demand for specific portfolios that led to the breakdown of talks between DMK and Congress over the participation of the Dravidian party in the UPA government.
A day after DMK?s dramatic announcement that it would support the government from outside, a complex tale has come to the fore of backroom politics in Tamil Nadu?s First Family, attempts of ministerial aspirants to spoil each others? chances and plain hankering for lucrative portfolios.
While the DMK chief was seen to be keeping the Congress on the tenterhooks, sources said he was in fact battling to somehow satisfy the individual and conflicting ambitions of five members of his party and family ?Kanimozhi, MK Azhagiri, Dayanidhi Maran, TR Baalu and A Raja.
As he landed in Delhi on Tuesday, the DMK chief?s wish list was clear. He had decided to demand cabinet berths for all the five and minister of state positions for minor leaders. But the Congress made it clear that the demand was simply unacceptable and the formula needed to be revised.
New formulations came up, keeping in mind the power equations within the family and party. While Kanimozhi had the backing of her mother and Karunanidhi?s third wife Rajathi, his second wife Dayalu Ammal was rooting for her son Azhagiri. Baalu and Raja are said to be close to the Rajathi and Dayalu households respectively. It is learnt that the chief minister?s elder daughter Selvi threw her weight behind Maran.
With the Congress refusing to budge, the DMK was forced to scale down its demand to four cabinet berths and one independent MoS and later to three cabinet ministers and two MoS with independent charge within a span of three days.
At one point, when the DMK patriarch came up with the four cabinet and one independent MoS (for Kanimozhi) formula, it is learnt that his wife Rajathi opposed it tooth and nail. Her contention was that if Azhagiri is made a cabinet minister, Kanimozhi could not be MoS.
Besides family politics, ministerial hopefuls also tried to pull each other down. Sources close to Raja alleged that Maran was behind the impression that the Prime Minister was loathe to have him in the cabinet. They also accused Maran of trying to scuttle the chances of Azhagiri, a first time MP, citing his inexperience.
Even when the DMK finally arrived at what it thought was a ?fair-share? formula (3 Cabinet, 2 MoS independent charge and 2 MoS), its choice of portfolios like surface transport, shipping, health, railways, telecom and information technology and power put off the Congress negotiators further.
It is learnt in a last ditch effort the Prime Minister spoke to Karunanidhi over phone and offered the DMK choices like chemicals and fertilisers, labour, heavy industries and IT and telecom. Sources in the DMK said Karunanidhi was upset by the way the Congress treated him, especially the PM?s move to offer portfolios over phone in a ?take it or leave it? fashion.
Before leaving for Chennai, the DMK chief was learnt to have written a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressing his feelings. Sources said he had made it clear that his integrity must not be questioned but that the party was with the Congress. His government?s survival in Tamil Nadu depends on Congress support.
He also asked his party MPs and senior leader A Raja to attend the swearing in ceremony.