Even as Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) president Vijayakant is taking on the ruling AIADMK on various fronts, two of his party MLAs called on Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday and lauded her government’s performance.
R. Sundarrajan, representing the Madurai Central Assembly constituency, and K. Tamil Azhagan elected from the Tittagudi reserved constituency, met Ms. Jayalalithaa and sought her help in the implementation of development projects in their constituencies. The meeting was held at the Secretariat on Friday morning.
“Many important issues and projects concerning our constituencies remain unattended and we requested the Chief Minister to look into the issues and ensure their implementation,” Mr. Sundarrajan said later.
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The DMDK has 29 MLAs in the Assembly and Mr. Vijayakant is the Leader of the Opposition. Though the DMDK and the AIADMK were part of the same alliance for the 2011 Assembly elections, they fell out subsequently in the wake of a war of words between Ms. Jayalalithaa and Mr. Vijayakant. The DMDK went alone in the local body polls.
The legislators’ meeting with the Chief Minister comes a few days before the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Assembly. Ms. Jayalalithaa will lay the foundation stone for an arch to commemorate the celebrations on October 29 and the session of the House will begin the next day. Mr. Sundarrajan said the objective of the meeting was to ensure that development works were implemented. To a question whether he and Mr. Tamil Azhagan had joined the ruling party, all he would say was that they had come to make a representation before the Chief Minister regarding their constituencies. “We will support all the good measures of the government.”
Mr. Tamil Azhagan said though he had raised various issues concerning his constituency in the Assembly a couple of times, nothing moved on the ground. “Voters of our constituency have elected us and it is our duty to work for them. We wanted Amma’s intervention to implement various works in our constituency and she has promised to help. The government is doing well and there is no doubt about it.”
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Asked about the development, a top DMDK source said that it would not affect the party.
“We opened our account in the Assembly with a single seat, and our strength grew to 29 within a short span. We could secure 8.33 per cent votes even when we went alone. A couple of people turning against our leader will not make any impact as he has single-handedly built the organisation.”
“No need to take permission”
Special Correspondent writes from Madurai:
Talking to The Hindu on phone, Mr. Sundararajan said he need not seek permission from party founder Vijayakant to meet Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
He said he had not informed Mr. Vijayakant about the meeting with the Chief Minister. He had sought an appointment with the Chief Minister sometime ago and it had fructified only now.
“As an MLA, why should I seek his (Mr. Vijayakant’s) permission to meet the Chief Minister? After all, the meeting was meant for getting some development works for my constituency. I am doing this only in the interest of my constituency and for the people who voted for me.”