Vellore: A day after it said only time will tell whether ties with the Congress would go back to normalcy, the DMK upped the ante Wednesday. It said if the national party wants to quit the alliance, it can do so.
Party veteran Duraimurugan, when asked about Congress’s charge that DMK violated coalition dharma and that the grand old party might leave the alliance, said ‘if they want to quit, let them do so. How are we concerned, what is the loss for us’?
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Pongal event here, the DMK treasurer said the party was not worried about Congress leaving the alliance and in particular he was not concerned.
In his sarcastic style, Duraimurugan said the Congress does not have a vote bank to make a dent on his party’s prospects in Tamil Nadu. “Do they have votes to make an impact?” he asked.
On his party colleague and former Union Minister TR Baalu saying that only ‘time will tell’ on ties, Duraimurugan said: “Baalu said only time will tell. But I have answered the question.”
Reacting to it, Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram, son of senior leader P Chidambaram, asked in his twitter handle: “Why didn’t this wisdom dawn before the Vellore parliamentary by-election? @DuraimuruganDmk @dmkathiranand.”
The Vellore Lok Sabha election was held in August last and Duraimurugan’s son Kathir emerged victorious by a margin of 8,141 votes.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief KS Alagiri again sought to downplay the widening rift, which appeared to heading for a break-up.
Going soft on the DMK top leadership, he told reporters in Chennai that the reason for his party not getting some seats, vis-a-vis the recent civic polls, was not due to the Dravidian party’s high command.
DMK said Tuesday it skipped a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress on CAA at Delhi since its party chief MK Stalin was accused of violating coalition dharma over local body polls.
PTI
