“Deeply hurt by the treatment” meted out to it during seat-sharing talks, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, led by Vaiko, on Sunday announced its decision to quit the AIADMK alliance and boycott the Assembly elections to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The AIADMK came forward to offer a maximum of 12 seats , but Mr. Vaiko made it clear that the party would not settle for anything less than “21 seats of our choice.”
“The belief that lessons time taught would have mellowed down AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa and brought about a change in her attitude has been proved wrong. She is still taking decisions unilaterally. It is totally unacceptable for us to continue in the alliance and face the voters,” said a resolution adopted at the meeting of MDMK district secretaries and various committees.
The party decided against forming a third front or going it alone.
While stressing that there was no need for the party to get Assembly seats at the expense of its self-respect, the resolution claimed that the MDMK was responsible for the victory of the AIADMK in 31 constituencies in 2006 Assembly elections.
Talking to The Hindu , MDMK general secretary Mr. Vaiko said he did not want to be a “spoiler” in the elections by putting up candidates in all constituencies.
“But the boycott is only for the 2011 Assembly elections,” he added.
