Pudukkottai/Chennai: MDMK chief Vaiko has asked DMK president M.K. Stalin to clarify whether MDMK and other parties are in alliance with the DMK.
“It is upto DMK president to decide whether MDMK and other parties are in alliance with the DMK or not,” Vaiko who had supported the DMK on common issues for over a year, said on Monday. Speaking to reporters in Pudukottai he said DMK treasurer Durai Murugan’s averment that MDMK is only a ‘friendly party’ and not an ally of the DMK has “hurt and disappointed” the MDMK cadres.
“Our cadres across Tamil Nadu are saddened...Durai Murugan has aired his views. Let the DMK president make his opinion known,” Vaiko said before proceeding to visit the Gaja ravaged places in Pudukottai district.
He was responding to a question on Durai Murugan’s statement on alliance in his interview to a Tamil news channel recently. MDMK, Thol Thirumavalavan-led VCK and CPI and CPI (M) were the only friendly parties for now and no electoral pact existed between DMK and them, he had said.
These parties have been part of the six-party alliance: People’s Welfare Front, during the 2016 Assembly election and threw in their lot with the DMK after the 2016 poll debacle. Vijayakanth’s DMDK and former Union Minister G.K. Vasan’s TMC are the other two partners of the now defunct PWF.
The firebrand speaker Vaiko had campaigned for the DMK candidate in the city’s R.K. Nagar by-poll in December 2017 and had said that Stalin was set to become the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. But, AIADMK rebel and now AMMK leader T. T. V. Dhinakaran had won the by-election trouncing the DMK and AIADMK candidates.
Though MDMK and VCK are expected to be part of the DMK-led alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, no formal announcement has been made by the DMK.
DMK extends support to MDMK agitation for Rajiv convicts’ release:
The DMK on Monday announced its support to Vaiko’s Dec. 3 agitation in front of the Raj Bhavan here demanding the release of the Rajiv Gandhi convicts.
The MDMK has planned to stage the picketing agitation to condemn the delay in the release of seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
In a letter to Mr. Vaiko, Mr. Stalin welcomed the picketing agitation to be jointly organised by the MDMK and the Dravidar Kazhagam and extended his party’s support for it. He condemned the delay in releasing the convicts under Article 161 of the Constitution even after the State Cabinet recommended their release, and said the DMK’s firm stand was that all the seven convicts - Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Nalini, Ravichandran, Robert Pyas and Jayakumar should be released immediately.
