New Delhi: Amidst signs of deterioration in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) ties, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on January 17 despatched one of his emissaries to meet DMK president M Karunanidhi, apparently in a bid to mollify its major Dravidian ally in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The emissary, Vijay Goel, Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office, headed for Chennai on January 17 evening saying it would be erroneous to reckon that BJP was moving away from DMK simply because All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supported some of the actions taken by Vajpayee government like enactment of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).

"It is right that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa supported the Centre on a number of issues like POTA. However, this cannot be construed as BJP moving from DMK, which is an important partner of NDA. It is wrong to even make such an assumption," Goel said.

There have of late been symptoms of a warming up of relations between BJP and AIADMK with the two parties supporting some of the actions taken by governments headed by each.

BJP leaders have welcomed the anti-conversion Legislation enacted by the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu whose Chief Minister J Jayalaltihaa was the only non-NDA leader to be present at the swearing-in of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

There had been a steady war of attrition between DMK and state BJP leaders following Karunanidhi's contention that the saffron party was secretly aligning with his political arch-rival AIADMK.

The BJP state leadership reacted sharply to Karunanidhi's view.

PTI