Chennai:
It's not often that the AIADMK and the DMK see eye to eye on issues, but when it comes to freeing the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi both seem to be speaking as one.
That's because neither party wants to antagonise pro-Tamil groups just ahead of the Lok Sabha election, due by May. The issue of Lankan Tamils is very emotive here and the political consequences of ignoring this sentiment are perilous.
In the 2009 elections, Finance Minister P Chidambaram was able to win here by only a small margin with pro Tamil groups campaigning against him during the final phases of the war against the LTTE. Mani Shankar Aiyar, a loyalist of Rajiv Gandhi was defeated.
It's in this context that the Jayalalithaa cabinet's decision to free all seven people convicted of the killing is seen as a political masterstroke.
('No parole' last week, freedom this week: Tamil Nadu's U-turn on Rajiv Gandhi killer Nalini Sriharan)
GC Shekhar, Associate Editor at The Telegraph told NDTV, "As far as Lok Sabha polls are concerned, Jayalalithaa has scored a huge brownie point. Now that (convict) Perarivalan's mother has met and thanked her, as far as Sri Lankan Tamils' issue is concerned she has risen head and shoulders above other claimants".
But not all agree. In the same elections, Jayalalithaa's AIADMK which raised the Lankan Tamils' issue won just nine of the 39 seats and MDMK Chief Vaiko who championed the cause of Lankan Tamils ended up losing. Editor and political commentator Cho Ramaswamy explains, "If people voted on the Lankan Tamils issue then Vaiko who has just two per cent vote share must have become Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu."
The AIADMK is nurturing plans to make Ms Jayalalithaa the Prime Minister. But the big question is - will her political masterstroke pay off?