Alluding to the goodwill gesture the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had displayed in taking back most of the ‘errant’ senior party functionaries who were recently served show-cause notice, party president M. Karunanidhi on Sunday said this would “disappoint the enemies of the party” who eagerly waited mass defection and even a split in the organisation in the wake of the disciplinary action.
Recalling party-founder late C. N. Annadurai’s famous one-liner, ‘Kuttram Paarkin, Suttram Illai (overemphasis on individual failings will result in loss of friends) Mr. Karunanidhi mollified partymen upset with the leadership’s decision, saying “those who really worked against the DMK’s interests in the recent Lok Sabha polls” would be defeated in the organisational polls at the district, union and urban unit levels.
“If they still continue to work against the party, we will ensure that party discipline prevails over all other considerations,” he said in a statement here.
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Mr. Karunanidhi, quoting from the letters written by party men against whom action was taken, said barring one person, all the other 32 seniors placed under suspension had submitted their explanations, responding to the charges against them.
Even though all of them had reiterated their loyalty to the party and its leadership, the high-command had not concluded that the allegations against them were not entirely without any basis, he said.
However, “Difference of opinion is inevitable in a major political party and there will always be an attempt to make a mountain out of a mole hill by rivals,” he said, adding that a democratic movement could not afford to appoint and remove district secretaries and ministers as per one’s whims and fancies.
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