New Delhi, March 25 :
The Chennai hurricane sweeps into the capital of intrigue tomorrow bringing in her trail a surging wave of speculation about the fate of the Vajpayee government.
Delhi is asking: Will Subramanian Swamy?s tea party, which Jayalalitha will attend and where Sonia Gandhi is expected to be present, end Vajpayee?s party?
Two contradictory engagements top her itinerary here ? the coordination committee meeting of the BJP and its allies on Saturday, where she will be under pressure to pledge support to the Vajpayee government and, Swamy?s much-talked-about high tea on Monday, where she will meet leaders of the Opposition.
Though 10 Janpath is silent, Congress sources indicated Sonia Gandhi will attend. The Congress described the tea party as ?not a political event?, but few in the capital are ready to buy this argument.
During her five-day stay in Delhi, the ADMK chief is slated to meet Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee, who is now not averse to an electoral tie-up with the Congress in the West Bengal municipal elections. Swamy has invited Mamata also, but the Trinamul leader said in Calcutta she is waiting to see who else is attending before making up her mind. Mamata?s indecision stands in sharp contrast to her declared resolve to not attend Saturday?s coordination committee meeting.
Sensing that trouble could be round the corner, the Prime Minister acted with alacrity and got his prot?g?, Chandni Chowk MP Vijay Goel, to host a reception for the ADMK chief on Saturday, two days before Swamy?s tea party. Apart from Jayalalitha and Vajpayee, all top BJP leaders and senior Cabinet ministers have been invited. Mamata, again, has declined the invitation. The BJP has taken great pains to cosy up to the lady from Poes Garden. Goel dropped Jayalalitha?s political foes ? Union petroleum minister Vazhapadi Ramamurthy and Marumalarchi DMK chief Vaiko ? from the guest list to please her.
The BJP leadership decided to convene a coordination committee meeting on Saturday to scotch speculation that Jayalalitha?s Delhi mission was aimed at destabilising the government.
BJP sources said her presence at the will send out a clear signal that the allies are united and there is no threat to the government. They also want to impress upon her that the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the sacking of naval chief Vishnu Bhagwat is politically motivated and her party should not support the Congress in Parliament on the issue.
Swamy has invited the entire star line-up of the Opposition. Former Prime Ministers Chandra Shekhar, I.K. Gujral, H.D. Deve Gowda, Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha leaders Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan are some of the important guests. The Left leaders are unlikely to attend.
The ADMK chief?s itinerary is full of contradictions. Tomorrow she will share a platform with Gujral on one side and Vajpayee on the other. The programme has run into controversy with DMK leader and former Union minister Murasoli Maran asking Gujral in writing not to share the dais with Jayalalitha.
On Saturday, Jayalalitha will pay a ?courtesy? visit to President K.R. Narayanan, while at JNU on Tuesday she will present a paper on Indo-US relations.