DMK emergency meet to discuss ‘areas of weakness'

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's emergency meet is being held on Friday at a time when the party is in the midst of a lean patch, perhaps for the first time in recent years.

In the Assembly elections, the party was inflicted a comprehensive defeat and it could secure barely 23 seats, whereas it had, in the previous House, 100 members including the Speaker. Calling the meeting a session for introspection, a senior leader says that the party would discuss the areas of weaknesses.

The timing of the meeting assumes greater importance when the party's Member of Parliament and DMK president M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi is in Tihar jail after her arrest in the 2G spectrum allocation case. The announcement regarding the meeting came hours after the Delhi High Court dismissed her bail plea.

On Sunday, when Mr Karunanidhi addressed a public meeting in Tiruvarur to thank voters for having elected him, he referred to the arrest of Ms Kanimozhi and said she was now in the jail “because of the role of the Centre's intelligence wing in the State or negligence of officials or any other factor.”

A day later, Union Minister and the Congress general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu Ghulam Nabi Azad replied that the Union government had no role in the case. “We could not have done anything.” But, he also went on record that “we share his [Mr. Karunanidhi's] agony. One can imagine the agony of a father whose daughter is in jail. He is upset.”

Also, there are reports of investigating agencies planning to probe Union Textiles Minister and the party's Central Chennai MP Dayanidhi Maran in the case.