The coalition government in Tamil Nadu is an essential phase in the history of the state as well as the national politics, as it marks the beginning of end of single regional party majority in the state, which was in place for more than forty years, since 1967. Also, it is equally important to the Congress because, it was the Congress that ruled the state before the 1967 elections.
Tamil Nadu was a challenge to the national parties, since the state was taken over by the regional from the 1960s. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party being the two large parties in the country which managed to rule the country during various point of time since independence. But this southern state has always been their challenge, especially after the 1967 elections. The anti – Hindi sentiment of the 60’s Tamil Nadu overthrew the Congress rule in the state, despite famous Congress Chief Ministers like K. Kamaraj, C. Rajaji among others.
The political scenario of the state made a shift in 1967 with a sweeping win by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, with a historic turn over of voters, 76% the highest in the history of Tamil Nadu elections. From then on, it’s the regional parties rule all the way to this day. Of course, the national parties managed to win alliances with these parties mainly for the Parliamentary elections, for the state political equation was different from the national politics, required a Dravidian spirit to a party.
The Indian political system’s famous trend of coalition politics to form government and rule the people has become indispensable in the face of representation of a pluralist society. The multiplicity of tiny political parties in the country and the solid vote banks they carry is not an issue which can be weighed flippantly. With the major influencing factors in the electoral Indian scene being caste, language, and other social sub divisions, it is inevitable to ignore these parties in the longer run for they have earned a sizeable vote banks in the state. With every other election, the less represented community chooses to float a party for the coming elections. Indian society being quite diverse on various lines at various points of incision, the largest democracy provides more parties to the already dense political fabric. Tamil Nadu not being an exception follows suit.
Coalition as a process in an elected democracy though, is not new to the Indian political system. The first coalition government was formed as early as 1952 in the first general elections in India. In the then Madras state, the Congress it had to join hands with the minor parties in the state since it failed to win majority. After a long spell of monopoly by the regional parties for over forty years, the second phase of coalition politics in the state started when the present government won the 2006 elections with its alliance with the Congress, Left parties and the Pattali Makkal Katchi. With all the allies including the Congress which won a extraordinary 34 seats, agreeing to support the exclusively Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government from outside, M. Karunanidhi took over Tamil Nadu on 13 May 2006, opening a renewed chapter in the Tamil Nadu political history.
The result of the last Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu exhibit a healthy pattern in the political equation, when compared to West Bengal and Assam that underwent the elections along with Tamil Nadu in 2006. The complete sweep by the Left in West Bengal did not allow a strong opposition in the left dominated state and the hung assembly in Assam did not allow either of the opponents to form government without realignment of the political equation. In Tamil Nadu, the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got 61 seats with its ally Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got 6 seats, a strong enough combination to oppose the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, which of course is enjoying outside support from the Congress, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (later walked out of the alliance in 2008) and the Left parties.
Forming the government in the Legislative Assembly does not have the same political equation than the national scene. The state assembly elections bring out the various tiny political parties in the state to the surface which actually represent the many political identities in the state. In the 2006 Assembly elections alone, 1364 candidates from 36 major and minor parties and 1222 independent candidates contested for 234 seats, giving the voters a wide range of choice.
The rise in number of parties in the state also shows the increasing political consciousness in the state reflecting the citizens’ trust in democracy and the higher literacy rate. With the winning chances in the constituencies lie mostly over the local issues and the issues concerning the state and the political activism of the candidate after his win, the real parliamentary issues or the international issues largely do not affect the local politics. For instance, the most famous Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu K. Kamaraj was defeated in his own constituency (Virudhunagar) by a candidate who was a leader in the student wing of a regional party in 1967.
On the other hand, the emergence of caste based parties like Pattali Makkal Katchi and Dalit Panthers of India also prove that the legendary Dravidian Movement in the state was not a complete success. The prominent social movement which influenced the political geography of Tamil Nadu was aimed against the caste differentiation in the society. But as the results stand today, it is evident that the movement has failed to erase identity based on caste in the political arena. The Pattali Makkal Katchi and the Dalit Panthers of India are said to be the parties with the Vanniars and Dalits forming their vote banks respectively. This is evident as these parties have won from constituencies in Northern Tamil Nadu especially where the Vanniars and Dalits forming the concentration in this part of the state.
The legendary Dravidian movement which is influencing the Tamil Nadu politics to this day has not succeeded in bringing about a society which does not allow caste into politics. In the last forty years of Dravidian parties’ ruling the state, the two major Dravidian parties could not avoid the emergence of other caste based parties. These parties have failed to accommodate the interests of all the social strata in the Tamil society, giving way for not just new parties surfacing in the political platform, but also did permit some of their leaders break away from them to form parties. Though, the movement has benefited the social scene of the state to a larger extent, it does not reflect in the state’s political arena, especially with identity of caste as base for forming a party becoming common.
The regional parties in Tamil Nadu, which are the brainchildren of the Dravidian movement, have a common ideology. They are all against the Hindutva ideology of the right winged political elements in and other states in the country. But as we observe across decades, the political ideologies of the different parties in the state have not always been the primary priority during the elections. The political parties’ alignment during the elections had not necessarily depended on their ideology, but on their interests in a certain political situation. For instance, one of the oldest parties of the Dravidian ideology, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the advocate of Hindutva, for the Lok Sabha elections in 1996.
With the record of various alliances the regional parties had with each other in the state, and the national parties changing their sides constantly, the political equation of the state is not stable, and evidently there are no permanent friends or foes in the Tamil Nadu politics. As the Tamil Nadu political system enters the coalition era, every ideological genre has to be included in the mainstream political process. The chances of winning a majority in the recent times also depend on the number of big and small parties that form the alliance. With the small parties in Tamil Nadu like the Pattali Makkal Katchi, Left parties and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam earning certain number of constituencies to them, the major parties can not afford to ignore them. In the new era of coalition in Tamil Nadu, united the parties win majority, divided they contest again!
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