Reporter's Diary: AIADMK hopefuls draw a blank despite lobbying in Delhi

Chennai

A handful of the 40- plus AIADMK parliamentarians --from the seasoned politician, to relative new-comers- had lobbied hard with their ‘friends’ in the New Delhi unit of the BJP, in order to secure a place in the cabinet. A go-to guy of the AIADMK in New Delhi, an MP who has access to the powers-that- be in Lutyens’ Delhi and another young AIADMK MP who is ‘close’ to an outspoken minister in the state cabinet, were among the aspirants. The AIADMK troubleshooter was so desperate that he had even met the BJP national president Amit Shah and the saffron party’s in- charge of Tamil Nadu, Muralidhar Rao, on numerous occasions, to get a berth. A member of the young MP’s family had also reportedly camped in the national capital for a few days last week, to coax his acquaintances in the BJP, so much so that a few party members in Tamil Nadu had voluntarily informed the media that the AIADMK MPs were so embarrassingly desperate, that they were regularly pleading with their national president. It was widely rumoured last month that a couple of AIADMK ministers had ‘sacrificed’ their portfolios during Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam’s reentry in to the cabinet, vainly hoping that they would be compensated elsewhere.