Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unscheduled meeting with DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi at the latter’s Gopalapuram residence in Chennai on Monday afternoon has triggered off a huge debate about what could have made the Prime Minister opt for the visit, which wasn’t part of his original tour schedule.

Modi’s 15-minute long meeting with Karunanidhi, Stalin, Kanimozhi and other top brass leadership of the DMK when he called on the veteran leader is seen by political observers together with State BJP president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan’s earlier comments that the ‘Prime Minister’s visit would induce a huge change in the State’s political climate’.

It is common knowledge that the ruling BJP at the Centre is remote-controlling the goings-on in the AIADMK even after factions led by EPS and OPS merged.  State Ministers have also gone on record that Modi’s patronage has made the Govt. survive. Despite accusation that the BJP is ruling the State by proxy, State BJP leaders have been leveling various allegations of mismanagement against the EPS-OPS regime.

It is pointed out that the BJP may not be averse to an alliance with the DMK, which is tipped to win the Assembly polls as and when they are held. This (probability) has made VCK, CPI-M, CPI, etc. to ‘approach’ the DMK with optimism. Even during the post-demonetization phase, it was the AIADMK leaders who faced IT raids and no DMK leader worth his name was disturbed by the BJP-led Centre.

However, some senior DMK leaders wanting to be unnamed point out that the DMK would be ‘digging its own grave’ if it ever committed the blunder of allying with the BJP; people would never patronize a DMK-BJP alliance in the State, they assert.