(From top) Jayalalithaa, Thambidurai and Gnanasekaran

Chennai, Feb. 8: Love knows no barriers, politics included, but the last word is still awaited from the leader of the father of the would-be bride.

Two young doctors in Tamil Nadu have been waiting for four years to get married because the girl’s father happens to be an MP of the ruling AIADMK and the boy’s father is a big gun in the Congress, which is now part of the DMK-led Opposition alliance.

Last week, the girl took the matter into her own hands and knocked on the doors of chief minister Jayalalithaa, whose blessings are the only indispensable ingredient missing from the trousseau.

M. Thambidurai, the girl’s father who was a deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, is said to be reluctant to approach Jayalalithaa and seek a date so that she can preside over the wedding. The boy’s family feels Thambidurai is unsure how Jayalalithaa would react to an alliance between the families of an AIADMK functionary and a Congress leader that would also see leaders from the DMK and the Congress turning up in large numbers for the wedding.

In Tamil Nadu politics, it is mandatory for party functionaries to have their children’s weddings presided over by their political bosses.

According to sources, Thambidurai has hemmed and hawed everytime his daughter Laasya, 26, urged him to start the wedding preparations since this would mean he had to get a convenient date from Jayalalithaa.

He apparently developed cold feet when Laasya pushed him to meet his leader to seek a date for the wedding. Contacted, Thambidurai refused to comment.

Laasya fell in love with Naveen, 30, son of C. Gnanasekaran, a four-time Congress MLA, when they were studying medicine at Sri Ramachandra Medical College at Chennai.

“This has been going on for four years. First, Thambidurai asked them to complete their MBBS. When they did, he said they could marry after completing their MD in radiology. So, we had the engagement function. My son Naveen has not only completed his course but is also an assistant professor at the college where he studied. Laasya has also completed her MD but her father continues to drag his feet,” said Gnanasekaran, who lost his Vellore Assembly seat in the 2011 elections.

Keen to break the deadlock, Gnanasekaran offered a way out since AIADMK functionaries are known to be averse to rubbing shoulders with their political opposites even at social events. Gnanasekaran proposed that he would not invite any Congress or DMK leader for the wedding to be presided by Jayalalithaa.

“I need to be there as the groom’s father but I promised that no one else from the DMK or the Congress will be there. Instead, I would host my political friends at a separate reception, giving Thambidurai the option of attending the same. He has to make the first move but he is scared to even broach the matter with his leader,” Gnanasekaran said.

Laasya finally did what her father had failed to do all these years. Last week, she marched up to Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence, met her personal secretary, gave a letter explaining her predicament and sought a date from Amma for the wedding.

Now it is up to Jayalalithaa to bring about this long-awaited alliance.