The Manidhaneya Makkal Katchi, which has two members in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, on Wednesday extended its support to DMK candidate Kanimozhi in the June 27 biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.
“We met DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and extended our support in the RS polls,” MMK leader M.H. Jawahirullah said.
MMK has two members — Mr. Jawahirullah (Ramanathapuram) and Aslam Basha (Ambur) in the Assembly.
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The DMK, which has 23 members in the Assembly, is set to contest the sixth seat with principal opposition the DMDK’s candidate A.R. Elangovan.
The DMDK has 29 members, including seven dissidents and has sought the support of the Congress, which has five members in the Assembly.
The last day for withdrawal of nominations for the polls to six Rajya Sabha seats is June 20.
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The ruling AIADMK is already assured of four seats with its strength of 151 members in the 234-member Assembly.
Talking to reporters after meeting the DMK chief at his CIT Colony residence, Mr. Jawahirullah said his party leaders met Mr. Karunanidhi to extend their support.
Asked why his party chose to support the DMK despite being part of the AIADMK alliance in the 2011 Assembly elections, he said, “We do not want to waste our votes in the RS polls, when AIADMK’s four candidates and CPI’s Raja have enough votes to secure their seats. So, we are supporting the DMK candidate.”
On whether the MMK would support the DMK in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he said, “We can talk about it only by that time (LS polls). We have taken a stand only for this RS polls.”
Asked whether his party was now out of the AIADMK combine, he said “We were with the AIADMK during the last Assembly polls. After that, we were not with them in the local body polls or cooperative societies polls,” he said.
Persisted for an answer on whether it could be considered that his party’s alliance with the ruling party was over, he said, “In this election, that is the RS elections, we will support the DMK.”