Accusing the Congress of being an “ungrateful” ally, DMK leader M. Karunanidhi on Sunday said his party would not align with it in the Lok Sabha elections next year. His announcement signals the end of a decade-old relationship between the two parties.
Mr. Karunanidhi also sought to maintain a distance from the BJP.
Addressing the DMK general council here, he said the party would go it alone rather than teaming up with ungrateful Congressmen, who, he charged, ignored the DMK and never gave it due respect.
Mr. Karunanidhi, who devoted much of his speech to launching a tirade against the Congress, also made it clear that the BJP today was not the same as it was under the leadership of the former Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee.
“The history of our relationship with the BJP is over with Mr. Vajpayee.”
Mr. Karunanidhi sought to play down the emergence of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, saying the hype about him had been created by the media and corporate houses.
Mr. Karunanidhi said he was not upset because the former Union Minister, A. Raja, and party MP Kanimozhi were arrested in the 2G spectrum case, but there was an attempt to embroil the DMK itself in a great scandal.
“They have created an impression as if Mr. Raja alone is responsible for every thing. They also kept Ms. Kanimozhi in jail for eight months. Though they [the two] have not done anything wrong, they had been forced to face the trial,” the DMK chief said, adding Mr. Raja was subjected to humiliation by the ruling Congressmen in Delhi.
“Do not think that we will forget all these and align with the Congress.”
Mr. Karunanidhi said the argument that the CBI dealt with the case would not hold water as everyone knew who was controlling the investigating agency.
The DMK leader said his party was betrayed by the Congress on the Sri Lankan Tamils’ issue also and it was not able to protect Tamil fishermen subjected to attacks by the island Navy.