RS Elections and Vasanthi Stanley

The Rajya Sabha elections that heated up Tamil Nadu's political scene for the last few weeks ended up in an anti-climax.

Paataali Makkal Katchi (PMK) chief Dr. Ramadoss, who earlier created a big song and dance sequence over non-allocation of seats to his party meekly surrendered by quoting an 'alliance dharma' theory. The very obvious reason for his sudden unfurling of white flag was that his son Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss did not want a premature end to his tenure at the Health Ministry at the Centre. So, curtains came down fairly soon on this episode of 'self respect' drama.

Another interesting aspect of this Rajya Sabha elections is the way it was handled by Jayalalithaa Jayaram's AIADMK. Having observed PMK making lot of noise within the ruling coalition, Jayalalithaa, in a bid to irritate PMK offered her ally Vaiko's Marumalarchi Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (MDMK) an opportunity to contest for the possible second seat. It is to be noted that MDMK has in all six MLAs in the current assembly. Jayalalithaa's might have thought that Dr. Ramadoss will catch hold of the fact that if a party with six MLAs (MDMK) can field its candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections, why PMK with eighteen MLAs can’t be given a chance. This will only hasten PMK's exit from DMK led alliance.

Another reason for Jayalalithaa's generosity was the fact that she was fairly certain that a MDMK candidate can't win the elections, unless Vijayakanth casts his vote for MDMK (There was a fair bit of workout on caste equations here. Had Vaiko got himself nominated, speculation was that Vijayakanth might have supported him as both of them belong to Telugu speaking Naidu community. Vijayakanth might not have wanted to vote for Vaiko precisely for this reason as well. This might have been a good opportunity to test the caste equation with Vijayakanth). However, Vaiko who was aware of his party's chances graciously declined the offer, while thanking Jayalalithaa. With AIADMK not choosing to field any second candidate, the elections ended with all the candidates getting elected unopposed.

Out of the six nominees who got elected unopposed, one of them - Vasanthi Stanley of Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam deserves a special mention. In the run up to the announcement of nominees, quite a lot of names within DMK were doing rounds. But the party chief Muthuvelar Karunanidhi in a surprise move hand picked Ameer Ali Jinnah and Vasanthi Stanley as DMK nominees for the Rajya Sabha.

What is interesting about this Vasanthi Stanley is that the litany of cases she has got against her name. It starts with Stanley Rajan (Vasanthi's husband) obtaining a home loan of Rs 40 lakhs from Bank of Baroda - Anna Nagar Branch, placing his apartment in Chennai's Mogappair as collateral. He somehow prepares another set of documents for the same property, places that as collateral with State Bank of India - Mount Road branch and obtains a loan of Rs 25 lakhs. He repeats the above with Life Insurance Corporation of India, State Bank of Travancore, Vijaya Bank, Syndicate Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad, UCO Bank, Dena Bank and what not.

Simply put, Stanley Rajan prepared fake documents for his home and managed to get home loans ranging from Rs 25 lakhs to 40 lakhs from various nationalised and private banks. As he found the above process working smoothly, he purchased few more properties and managed to swindle money from few more branches of various banks. In many of these (illegal) transactions, Vasanthi has either been a co-applicant or has been a guarantor. Some of the above mentioned banks got wind of the fraud and filed complaints with the Crime Branch of Chennai Police. Stanley was arrested and was lodged in prison for few months before being granted bail. As many as fifteen cases are pending against Stanley and his wife Vasanthi on charges of cheating. About a year ago, Syndicate Bank placed adverts in leading news dailies with photographs of Vasanthi and Stanley informing the public about the fraud.

A politician facing cases in the court is a common occurrence in India . Some of the cases could be brushed aside as being politically motivated. Cheating few nationalised banks can not however be considered as a politically motivated case. It is also a fact that unless proven, an accused should be treated as innocent. But, one wonders why of all the persons in DMK, Karunanidhi chose Vasanthi as the party's nominee. May be, these were the qualifications he was looking for. If Vasanthi and Stanley could 'achieve' this much before gaining any level of prominence, think of what they could do after becoming a Member of Parliament.

Worst part in this story is that, none of the other parties including the opposition seemed to care about Vasanthi's background. If at all there were murmurs of protest, it was from within DMK - especially from those who were expecting to get nominated for the Rajya Sabha. Sadly, Vasanthi Stanley is not a sole example of this stink. The nation has a bigger example in the form of Pratibha Patil, who went on to occupy the Rashtrapathi Bhavan despite her shoddy background. Vasanthi will infact feel proud for having emulated the country's president.

DMK vs PMK Imbroglio

Trust Paataali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Dr S Ramadoss to spice up the otherwise routine exercise of Rajya Sabha elections and he will.

More often than not, elections to the upper house of the Indian Parliament cease to be interesting after the respective parties announce their nominees. The terms of as many as six Rajya Sabha members from Tamilnadu expires by March 2008 and the elections are all set to be held on 26th March to fill up the vacant seats. To become a member of Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu, each candidate has to secure votes from 36 MLAs. According to the current dynamics of the house, the ruling Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) comprising of DMK, Congress, PMK, CPI, CPI(M), Viduthalai Siruthaigal could comfortably send four MPs to the Rajya Sabha. However, they will fall short of 3 votes to send the fifth member from their alliance. On the other hand, the opposition parties comprising of AIADMK and MDMK can send one member to the Rajya Sabha in view of their current strength, but will be falling short of 2 votes to send another member to New Delhi. It is in these context, the vote of one-member party like Vijayakanth - who does not belong to either of the above camps, assumes significance.

Last time around, in June 2007 when a similar situation arose Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam chief Muthuvelar Karunanidhi was unusually generous. In order to avoid any horse trading, he said, DMK led DPA will let the AIADMK led opposition to take away two seats while the ruling coalition will take away four, thus ensuring that there was no contest. The apparent reason for his generosity was that his daughter Kanimozhi Karunanidhi was being nominated to Rajya Sabha on behalf of DMK and he wanted to ensure that her election was smooth and peaceful. Moreover, if DMK was to contest one more seat, they would have had to seek support from DMDK chief Vijayakanth, who in the recent times has emerged as one of the bitter-most critics of Karunanidhi.

This time around, although the situation is similar, the dynamics are slightly different. PMK, which has got 18 MLAs in the current Assembly has been requesting one Rajya Sabha seat for the party. Gradually, the request turned into demand and at one point, PMK strongman Dr S Ramadoss even gave a deadline of March 15 (the last day for nominations) to DMK. However, ending even the remote chance for rapproachement over the Rajya Sabha seat distribution row within the ruling party-led DPA, DMK president Karunanidhi politely said a firm ‘NO’ to the PMK and went ahead in announcing the names of the party nominees. Among the four Rajya Sabha seats and a possible fifth that are up for grabs for the coalition, DMK has chosen to take two and allocated two to Congress and one to CPI(M).

PMK is not part of the government at the State level. However, they are part of the Central Government in New Delhi with Dr. Anbumani Ramadosss (son of PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss) enjoying his stint as Union Health Minister. Although PMK is blowing hot air on DMK over various issues in the last two years, the party's relationship with Congress has been very cordial. Also, PMK does not seem to have any issues with the Communists as well. Ironically, if PMK choses to abstain from voting in the Rajya Sabha elections, it will be the Communists' nominee T K Rangarajan who will miss the bus to Rajya Sabha.

At the time of writing (12th March 2008), there are three possible courses that PMK might take.

1) Support the CPI(M) nominee for the sake of the 'alliance dharma' and also for the need to maintain cordial equation with the Congress and the Left parties, keeping in mind future political permutation and combinations.

2) Walk out of DMK led alliance and cross over to AIADMK camp. PMK will support MDMK's nominee (ally of AIADMK). This will mean that the party will lose its Ministers at the Centre.

3) Remain in DPA and abstain from voting in the Rajya Sabha elections on March 26th. This will mean that PMK will not lose its Ministers at the Centre, but the party could very well enter the bad books of Communists (not that it matters that much). Congress might not be too bothered.

It looks like PMK didn't do its homework properly before firing salvos on DMK. Having antagonised the ruling DMK over getting a seat for the Rajya Sabha election in the State, it has also forced upon itself a certain iciness in its relationship with the other constituents of the DPA. Ramadoss, in response to a query on whether he would move out (of the alliance), said that the question has not risen till now. However by saying, 'We have time till 15 March,' he has opened up the field for speculations. With general elections for the Lok Sabha looming large, every party will want to keep its options open. The only reason that is holding the PMK in the DMK led DPA is the few ministries held by PMK men at the Centre. By jumping out of the alliance, the party will not want to throw away the benefits of power, even if it is for less than a year. Perhaps the time has come for Dr Ramadoss to call Jayalalithaa Jayaram as 'Anbu Sagodhari' (beloved sister). Having observed Dr Ramadoss for the last decade or so, it is not a question of 'whether'. It is just a matter of 'when'.