Chennai: The state government, which is to hold MGR birth centenary function in Chennai on September 30, has included names of DMK president and leader of Opposition M. K Stalin and AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran in the invitation.
The government is holding such functions in all the districts and Chennai will be the last district to have the function, which is to be held at YMCA at Nandhanam in the city. While Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his deputy O. Panneerselvam and other ministers will participate in the function, names of Stalin, TTV Dhinakaran and DMK MP Kanimozhi have been included in the invitation.
At a time when ruling AIADMK and opposition parties like DMK and AMMK leader Dhinakaran keep trading charges against each other on a host of issues ranging from corruption to administration, such names in the invitation has sparked speculation in the political circle that whether or not such leaders will take part in the function.
TKS Elangovan, spokesperson of DMK, said, “When there is a government function in any areas, the elected representatives, irrespective of parties, should be invited under the respective jurisdiction. In that sense, the invitation has our leaders' names. However, we have not yet decided about parti-
cipation in the meeting.”
Similarly, Dhinakaran responded, “The government has invited all the MLAs elected in Chennai district. So, my name is included. That is it.” When such a function was last held at Kanyakumari district, the government had given invitation to DMK and Congress MLAs, as Kanyakumari district had no AIADMK MLA.
