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DMK won't work for common nominee in Sattankulam

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI Dec. 23. The DMK will not work for putting up a common candidate in the Sattankulam Assembly byelection, the party president, M. Karunanidhi, said today. The executive committee would meet to decide whether the DMK would contest the seat.

While maintaining that fielding a united Opposition candidate would be ``good,'' Mr. Karunanidhi doubted whether this would become a reality. Many times in the past there were talks of having a common candidate against the ruling AIADMK, but the exercise failed each time.

Asked about the CPI (M)'s call that all democratic forces should come together to oppose the AIADMK, Mr. Karunanidhi said it did not consider the DMK a democratic party. ``They are allergic to the DMK.''

Asked whether the DMK would want the BJP to contest the Sattankulam seat (which it unsuccessfully contested last time), he said his party was not in alliance with the BJP at the State level. The BJP did not support the DMK in the Vaniyambadi and Saidapet byelections, but backed the MDMK. It was the DMK, which contested these seats when the parties were allies at the State level.

Mr. Karunanidhi said the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, had not extended an invitation to him for the swearing-in. There was no reason to invite him too, he added. Asked whether the AIADMK was closer to the BJP-led NDA than was the DMK, Mr. Karunanidhi said: ``there are so many illusions in the world. This is one of them.''

To another query whether the AIADMK too was an undeclared part of the NDA, he said it was not so. The DMK was part of it. The AIADMK, which has not been invited, was supporting the alliance.

On the absence of the DMK in a delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs which met the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, urging him to speed up projects in the State, he said the DMK MPs were not properly informed.

`Hindutva ideology not acceptable'

On the Hindutva issue, Mr. Karunanidhi said the DMK's views were ``not different'' from that of the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Sharad Yadav, who had said his party would pull out of the alliance if the BJP adopted the Hindutva campaign.

``The DMK does not accept the Hindutva ideology. We made this clear even as the NDA was taking shape,'' Mr. Karunanidhi said.

Asked about the law and order in the State and the arrest of some terrorists, Mr. Karunanidhi said the police statements themselves seemed to indicate that the situation was turning from bad to worse.

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