Sriperumbudur, Nov. 5: M. Karunanidhi yesterday sprang a pleasant surprise on his Congress partners when he paid tribute to Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial here, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh by his side.

This is the first time the 83-year-old DMK leader has visited the spot where Rajiv Gandhi had fallen to an LTTE human bomb in May 1991, minutes before an election rally.

Putting behind the barrage of barbs hurled by the Congress following the Jain Commission’s report on the conspiracy behind Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the DMK chief arrived at the memorial, flowers in hand, five minutes after the Congress chief and the Prime Minister.

Ties between the two parties had begun taking a different turn in 2004 when Karunanidhi decided to join the UPA.

But of late, signs of strain in the alliance have been visible. One such instance was when Karunanidhi rubbed the Congress the wrong way by not slamming MDMK leader Vaiko strongly enough for his pro-LTTE comments.

Yesterday’s gesture is also significant in the backdrop of the political turmoil in Tamil Nadu.

With the CPM and the PMK, the DMK’s two key allies in the state, miffed about the violence and cross-voting in the recent local body elections, the chief minister is in desperate need of friends.

And Karunanidhi left no stone unturned yesterday. Helped by Union telecommunications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran and environment minister A. Raja, the DMK patriarch walked to the memorial barefoot.

Sonia and Singh were waiting there with Congress leaders, including P. Chidambaram, Mani Shankar Aiyar, E.V.K.S. Elangovan and G.K. Vasan. Tribute over, Karunanidhi accompanied the Big Two to a string of programmes near Sriperumbudur.