While Ms. Jayalalithaa has had to re-strategise her campaign to win the battle of perceptions in order to be able to register another triumph, her arch-rival 93-year old DMK leader Mr Karunanidhi is hard put to cobbling together an anti-Jaya alliance. His party is still nursing its wounds from its crushing defeat in 2011.

The litany of corruption and other charges made out against its leaders and quarrels and rivalry for succession in the supreme leader's family has badly hit DMK though the younger son Chennai's deluge from the North-East monsoon fury end-November, flooding vast populated areas of city and neighbourhoods, and leaving a trail of deaths and destruction, is perceived to have negatively impacted on the popular image of the ruling AIADMK leader, Ms. Jayalalithaa.and aspirant for Chief Ministership Mr M K Stalin has been making valiant efforts to change the script and carry forward.

Convening her party's General Council on December 31, Ms. Jayalalithaa acknowledged the need for 'new strategies' to defeat the 'evil designs' of opponents, and hinted at inviting one or two suitable allies ahead of elections. This may not be easy but one party inclined to go with AIADMK is the Tamil Manila Congress led by Mr G K Vasan, which broke away from the Congress last year and has been strengthening its appeal.

Ms. Jayalalithaa told her partymen that she would take the 'right decision' at an 'appropriate time' and chalk out the strategy to lead the party to power for a record seventh time. Meanwhile, she wanted the party ministers and cadres to spread among the people the regime's achievements including power generation (ending power cuts), victory in inter-state water disputes with Karnataka and Kerala and in securing massive investment commitments from global investors. She primarily rests her hopes on “Amma” branded welfare schemes.

It is still early to surmise a possible line-up of BJP with AIADMK as a last resort in poll calculations, an issue on which the state-level party totally opposed to AIADMK rule has to reconcile itself with whatever view is taken at the national level. And how far Ms. Jayalalithaa herself is inclined to get into a major alliance involving BJP as a partner is more than one could foresee at present. Much would depend on evolving situation in the next few months.

DMK is yet to find a willing ally to go with it, other than the badly shaken and deeply divided Congress, to help make a difference in the final vote count in the May elections to the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly. The State has been ruled alternately by one or the other of the two Dravidian majors since 1967. The Congress has traditionally aligned with one or the other of the two major Dravidian parties.

Notwithstanding her spectacular victory runs in 2011 for the Assembly and in 2014 for the Lok Sabha poll, in which she bagged 37 out of 39 Tamil Nadu seats to emerge as the third largest party Parliament, the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa would not like to leave anything to chance this time.

Her current campaign and directive to the party is to fan out and put across her Government's development and welfare schemes and change the 'distorted' image sought to be created by the opposition parties about Government's handling of the weather disaster.

Outside the two detested 'corrupt' majors which have held sway, other smaller state-level Dravidian parties and Left have their own agendas. As a national party, BJP entered the political scene in Tamil Nadu in 2014 and won a seat, and is now desperately trying to lead an alliance against both the ruling AIADMK and DMK and enlarge its presence in Tamil Nadu.

Shunned by other parties for its Hindutva image, none of the state parties including PMK, led by Dr Ramadoss, with a sizeable following among Vanniyars in northern districts, is willing to go along with it any longer, though it had opted to go with NDA and won a Lok Sabha seat in 2014.

On the other hand, PMK has already its Chief Ministerial candidate in Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, MP, son of the party's founder, with a commitment to total prohibition in 'a new Tamil Nadu' it would usher in, if voted to power. It does not seem prepared to go beyond this 'wishful thinking' at present.

Equally determined to be Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu through any alliance and at any cost is DMDK Chief Mr Vijay Kant, the film hero. And Mr. Vijay Kant remains the most sought after leader by DMK as well as BJP to strengthen their respective alliances because of this party's growing voter base since 2006.

Given his single-minded political objective of leading any alliance and assuming power, Mr. Vijay Kant has kept these parties guessing on his final response. He is sworn to fight Ms. Jayalalithaa's AIADMK though in 2011, his party had aligned with it and could emerge as the second largest party with 29 seats in the Assembly downgrading even DMK (23 seats).

Not long after Mr Vijay Kant, the leader of opposition, broke ranks with AIADMK, some of whose members drifted to join AIADMK. He has promised to announce his party line sometime in January. In any case, DMK may not be willing to let the alliance led by Mr Vijay Kant. It remains to be seen whether BJP is willing to accept his leadership of an NDA alliance.

Having thundered against the AIADMK leader all the time, the State Congress Chief Mr. E C K Elangovan readily seized on Mr Karunanidhi's invitation to the Congress and go along with DMK, letting by-gones be by-gones. Earlier, with a bravado, Mr Elangovan had talked of going alone in the elections and modified it later to claim power-sharing in any alliance. But DMK leader has rejected any conditions at this stage.

Besides AIADMK, DMK and DMDK with or without aligning with BJP, four other state parties have promoted a People's Welfare Alliance (PWA) to contest the elections. It comprises the two Left parties, VCK of Mr Thirumavalavan and MDMK of Mr Vaiko (who had aligned with NDA-led alliance in 2014). This party wants to steer clear of the two Dravidian majors and bring about a change in the political scene in Tamil Nadu. It has no clearcut political strategy. (IPA Service)