Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M. Karunanidhi on Thursday said his party's decision to go it alone in the Tamil Nadu local body polls, due next month, would not have any bearing on its ties with the Congress and its presence in the Union government.
“Alliance with the Congress will be needed only during Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Our ties will not break on such occasions. We continue to be with the Central government,” Mr. Karunanidhi told journalists here.
As far as the DMK was concerned, there was no change in its stand on having poll alliances or seat adjustments during general elections. “There is no need to approach the local body elections on the basis of a political plank, as only the need to fulfil the people's basic needs is the main objective. The DMK felt there was no need to mix politics with local polls,” he said.
Asked if anybody from the Congress had contacted him after his party's decision, he replied in the negative. “We have not said there will be no ties with the Congress. We have only said there will be no alliance for the local body polls.”
When pressed for a specific reason for going it alone, he said, “We have said so because of our confidence that we can contest alone. The reasons have already been explained.”
He disagreed with a suggestion that the party could have gone it alone in the Assembly elections itself. “I have explained the difference between the Assembly elections and local body polls. This is not a belated decision.”
2G case
To queries on the continued incarceration of those arrested in the 2G spectrum allocation case, including his daughter and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, he said: “She is only a shareholder in Kalaignar TV. Normally, shareholders are not included in cases concerning a company. Even though our lawyers have clearly made this argument, the case continues before the CBI Special Court.”
Mr. Karunanidhi also cast doubts on the estimates of huge losses contained in the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG). “From the beginning, auditors have been giving dubious statistics. They initially claimed there were losses to the tune of crores of rupees, but later they described the figures as notional. There is a question mark on whether there was any loss at all.”
