Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Wednesday challenged DMK president and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to attend the Assembly, and DMK deputy Legislative party leader Duraimurugan responded, saying he wanted to know whether the Chief Minister was ready to make proper seating arrangement for his leader in the House.
In a statement, Mr. Panneerselvam said Mr Karunanidhi should fulfil his democratic responsibility by participating in the coming Assembly session and taking part in the proceedings “if he is of the view that he has got an issue to criticise the government and if he has the courage to come to the House and make observations.”
Meanwhile, DMK’s MLAs decided to meet on Wednesday to chalk out the strategy for the Assembly session.
Asked whether Mr. Karunanidhi would attend the House, Mr. Duraimurugan said he was at a loss to understand the Chief Minister’s demand, especially when there was no space even for him to take the seat allotted to him in the second row.
“Our leader is not afraid of facing Mr. Panneerselvam or his predecessor Jayalalithaa. He had faced great Chief Ministers like Rajaji, Kamaraj and Bhaktavatsalam and outstanding legislators like P. Ramamurthy, R. Umanath, Sankaraiah and Ramani. He has also represented the DMK in the Legislative Council,” he said.
The ruling party should first allow the DMK legislators to express their views instead of evicting them from the House on lame excuses, he said.