Chennai, Feb. 18: The DMK, which heads the Democratic Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu, has all but given up on ally Vaiko.

The MDMK leader’s stony silence since he met the Prime Minister in Delhi provoked a sharp response from DMK leader M. Karunanidhi today.

“I do not know what transpired between Vaiko and Manmohan Singh, but it is nearly 10 days and there has been no response whatsoever from the MDMK on its wish-list for contesting the Assembly polls,” he told reporters here.

“It appears that they (MDMK) have taken a decision (regarding their poll strategy) and, if that is true, we will have to move ahead and take the decisions we have to take.”

During his meeting with the Prime Minister, Vaiko is believed to have suggested the possibility of parting ways with the DMK-led alliance ? of which the Congress is a member ? in the state while staying on in the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre.

The DMK patriarch did not appear shocked at the suggestion amid speculation that the second-level MDMK leadership has held three rounds of talks with second-rung leaders in Jayalalithaa’s ADMK.

Rumours are flying thick and fast about the possibility of Vaiko calling on Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence on Friday, her birthday, “to say it (about MDMK joining the ADMK) with flowers”.

The DMK is annoyed about this, as also about the developments in the state Congress that give an impression that the party has weakened here.

Former state party chief Tindivanam Ramamurthy called on Jayalalithaa before he was expelled from the Congress. K. Muraleedharan, the leader of the breakaway Democratic Indira Congress in Kerala and son of former chief minister K. Karunakaran, met her yesterday to tie up with the ADMK for the Kerala Assembly polls.