Big blow for Captain as Panruti quits DMDK

Chennai: DMDK presidium chairman and deputy leader of opposition in state Assembly, Panruti S. Ramachandran resigned as MLA, quit the party and announced his retirement from politics.

The ‘desertion’ of the senior most political leader from the problems-ridden party should hurt its ‘Captain’, Vijayakanth, already disturbed by rebellion by some of his MLAs.

Even though Panruti, as he is widely known, cited health reasons for his decision to quit DMDK and politics, he dropped enough hints in his brief interaction with the media that he was forced to leave owing to series of serious differences with Vijayakanth.

“I would do what I felt was right and sometimes they (leadership) may not agree. I would not worry about that”, he told reporters who pressed him to go beyond his letter to the Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal informing him of his decision to resign as MLA due to health reasons.

Next: Captain may not miss Panruti

Captain may not miss Panruti

Chennai: Party presidium chairman Panruti S. Ramac­ha­ndran’s quitting the DM­DK has been long expected but not his decision to retire from politics.

The soft-spoken shrewd politician may still have many years to go should some party decide to use the sharp intellect of the man long known as an arasiyal chanakyan. But sadly, the man may find there is no place to go since he had burnt the bridges with the DMK and is unlikely to be welcomed in the AIADMK either.

Panruti was first elected to the Assembly on a DMK ticket in 1967 and became a minister in 1971. He quit the party to join the AIA­DMK and was a key member of the MGR governm­ent when his pa­rty swept the 1977 poll.

After his de­a­th, Panruti sided with Jaya­lal­ithaa before he quit to join the PMK and later float his own outfit for a brief time. He joined the DMDK when Vijay­akanth launched the pa­rty in 2005.

In the state polls held in May 2011, the DMDK won 29 seats to become the ma­in opposition while the D­M­K ended up in the third position with 23 MLAs. Recently 7 DMDK M­LAs reb­elled and called on CM with petitions for improving their constituencies.

With Panruti now resigning, the ‘loyal’ DMDK in the House is reduced to 21 but Captain will not lose his Leader of Opposition status as he did not expel the rebels from the party.