NEW DELHI, May 8: With voting in Tamil Nadu barely five days away, India's ruling Congress Party and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also joined the "Eelam" chorus.

The Congress Party said here on Thursday that it is in favour of "a permanent peaceful political solution" to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, but remained silent on whether it should be within or outside the framework of an united Sri Lanka.

The party's media in-charge M Veerappa Moily simply declared: "We want a permanent peaceful political solution."

Sources in the Congress Party said this is a carefully calibrated statement aimed at partially synchronizing the party's position with the other political parties in Tamil Nadu.

The Sri Lankan Tamil issue is being seen as a possible "game-changer" in the crucial parliamentary election in Tamil Nadu, where polling is due on May 13.

The Congress Party has an alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the ruling party in Tamil Nadu. On Wednesday, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi gave a call for a separate Eelam state for Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Speaking to his party channel Kalaignar TV from his hospital bed, the 85-year-old Karunanidhi declared: "The Tamils should get their own homeland (Eelam). I have assumed responsibility of taking all possible efforts to ensure that."

Apparently, the DMK's stand on Eelam has forced the Congress to change its own stance on the sensitive issue.

All these years, India's consistent position has been that there can be no military solution to the ethnic issue in the neighbouring island nation, and that the way out is a negotiated political settlement based on a credible devolution of powers within the framework of an united Sri Lanka, which is acceptable to all communities, including the Tamils.

However, Moily took care to say that the DMK's demand for a separate homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils can be looked into by the next government that will assume office after the ongoing parliamentary election.

Incidentally, the DMK, which is fighting a grim battle to return to power in Tamil Nadu, was itself forced to talk in favour of Eelam after its arch rival and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam (AIADMK) boss Jayaram Jayalalithaa's aggressive stand on the subject.

Last week, Jayalalithaa declared that, if people vote for her party in all the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu on May 13, she will persuade the new government in New Delhi to send the Indian Army to Sri Lanka to help create Eelam !

Also on Thursday, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Lal Kishenchand Advani made his own contribution to this pro-Eelam cacophony. Speaking at an election rally at Paramakudi in Tamil Nadu, he declared: "India must intervene immediately and effectively in the affairs of Sri Lanka to stop the suffering of Tamils."

He blamed the Congress-led Manmohan Singh government's mishandling of India's foreign policy for the crisis in Sri Lanka.

He said with a dash of nostalgia that there was a time when Sri Lanka would not have taken a major decision without India.s approval. "We exercised great influence over Sri Lanka. But in the last five years, this influence has been dissipated. The Tamil people in Sri Lanka have to suffer a lot because of the wrong policies (of the Indian government). I can fully understand the agony and anguish of Tamils here (in Tamil Nadu) over the sufferings of their brethren in Sri Lanka." OVER