DMK dynamics

The DMK’s pullout from the UPA government would end its non-stop tryst with power at the Centre since 1996, barring a brief 13-month interlude during the BJP-led NDA alliance’s first term.
The party has been in the government irrespective of the different coalitions that have ruled since 1996 — the UF between 1996 and 1998, the NDA’s second stint from 1999 to 2004 and then under UPA-I and II since 2004. The DMK’s strong tally of MPs in elections since 1996, barring the 1998 polls, has ensured its position as an assertive partner in successive coalition governments. For almost a decade-and-a-half, DMK supremo M Karunanidhi has wielded considerable clout in not only key policy decisions, but also guided New Delhi’s diplomatic manoeuvres when it came to Sri Lanka.

The longevity of the DMK’s stint as a coalition partner, especially under the UPA, has much to do with its willingness to practice a give-and-take relationship with the Congress. The southern ally never flinched from extracting concessions from the Manmohan Singh-led government from time to time.
In 2006, the DMK forced the Centre to shelve a move to divest 10% stake in Neyveli Lignite Corporation at the eleventh hour. The ally also ensured that its pet Sethusamudram project is pushed despite resistance from opposition parties and environmentalists as well as the UPA’s own doubts about its economic feasibility.

The tough bargaining streak of the DMK was most prominent in its armtwisting on diplomatic issues like the 2012 UN resolution against “human rights violations” by Sri Lankan while crushing the LTTE. The DMK, by threatening to pull out from the government, extracted a concession from the UPA which was slammed by foreign policy experts as a diplomatic blunder: it supported a US-sponsored UN resolution against Sri Lanka, when even China voted against it.
However, the DMK has balanced its bargaining tactics with pragmatism. It has seen reason in the Singh government’s insistence on letting the 2G probe follow its course, and has cooperated by getting the tainted A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran to quit to pave the way for their trial. Even when the 2G probe drew in Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, the DMK chief restrained himself from withdrawing support.