Chennai: Blowing hot and cold, DMK president M Karunanidhi on Wednesday extended an olive branch to the Congress offering to "forgive" and support it after the elections.
Launching his elections campaign in the city, the 89 year-old DMK supremo first mounted a sharp attack against Congress with which his party had severed ties last year and refused to renew the alliance for the April 24 Lok Sabha polls.
"We will support Congress if it seeks our help after the polls. The Congress has been unfaithful, but we are willing to forgive them," Mr Karunanidhi said.
"They were more inclined to save their government but showed no gratitude," he said in an apparent reference to the problems faced by his daughter, Kanimozhi, and former Telecom minister A Raja, who were jailed in a case relating to 2G scam.
But suddenly he softened his tone when he said, "If the Congressmen express regret and get back to their secular credentials DMK will support them not in terms of votes but to change the evils that had gripped them, and ready to fogive them."
The DMK patriarch predicted doomsday for Congress in Tamil Nadu in this election, saying it had hit an 'abysmal low' not only in this state but elsewhere too.
"To lead a good life, you have to have gratitude. Congress never realised who gave them a helping hand in the past and gave so many troubles to DMK and its members and they are paying for it now," Karunanidhi who advanced his electioneering by about two weeks, told a well-attended gathering in the city.
The two parties had contested the 2009 general election together, and had walked away with 26 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. The DMK's share was 18, while the Congress won eight of them.
Karunanidhi was campaigning for three constituencies in the city, North Chennai, South Chennai and Central Chennai, where his grandnephew Dayanidhi Maran is contesting for the third time.
