PMK hopeful of ministerial berth

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 26. The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), which returned to the National Democratic Alliance fold, was hopeful that the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, would reinduct the party nominees in the Union Council of Ministers, even as it blamed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa, for the ``parting of ways.''

A day after the party rejoined the NDA, the PMK founder, Dr. S. Ramadoss, told The Hindu, that while the issue of his party nominees being accommodated in the Union Cabinet did not figure in his meeting with Mr. Vajpayee on Wednesday night, he expected it to happen whenever the Prime Minister carried out an expansion.

Dr. Ramadoss, whose party snapped its links with the NDA five months ago on the eve of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections only to rejoin, said the moves could not be seen as ``opportunistic'' but one forced by the ``intemperate and deceitful behaviour of Ms. Jayalalithaa and listed several instances to justify the decision to move out of the AIADMK camp.

He said the PMK joined the AIADMK front in the hope that the latter would help the party form a coalition government in Pondicherry and also secure a sizeable number of seats in the Tamil Nadu assembly.

``Till the agreement was signed she exhibited courtesy and cordiality to the PMK apparently to please it. But the events that occurred in the post-agreement period proved disastrous to the growth and self-respect of our party,'' Dr. Ramadoss said.

Listing out some ``acts of betrayal,'' he said though the PMK agreed to contest 27 seats in Tamil Nadu, the party was denied the constituencies it preferred and told where it should contest, instead of deciding the seats through discussion and mutual consultation.

In Pondicherry, he said, despite having an agreement with the PMK, the AIADMK general secretary tried to rope in the Congress, Tamil Maanila Congress and the Left parties without consultation. When the PMK did not agree to give up the original conditions of agreement, Ms. Jayalalithaa announced the constituencies ``erratically with very weak candidates'' which resulted in creating an impression that the AIADMK-PMK alliance was the weakest among the three alliances which contested the polls in the Union Territory.

He said the AIADMK had contested against the Congress in 14 of the 20 constituencies, but after the elections, Ms. Jayalalithaa joined hands with the Congress to form a coalition government by ``deserting and ditching the PMK. Can there be a better instance of hypocrisy and backstabbing that this political immorality...? How can there be an alliance with such a person who shifts sides within a month for the sake of power ?,'' he asked.

The other grievances were going back on the assurance of a Rajya Sabha seat, no consultation among the allies on important policy matters, no common minimum programme or coordination committee, and settling scores with political opponents instead of concentrating on the problems of the people.

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Section  : National
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