The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) will head a new front in the State in the coming elections to Parliament, party founder-leader S. Ramadoss said here on Monday.
The front would not include the Dravidian parties and the national parties. It would emerge victorious in at least ten constituencies, he said.
Pointing out that the PMK had erred earlier in aligning with the AIADMK and the DMK, he declared “we will not repeat the mistake at any cost.”
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In the 2007 general council meeting, the PMK declared that it would capture power in the State in 2011. However it could not be achieved because it had joined hands with the Dravidian parties in the last general and State elections. Its goal now was to come to power in the State in 2016.
Dr. Ramadoss said in the coming general elections the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Army against the Tamil civilians would be the main issue.
The PMK’s plank would be justice for Tamils, punishment in the International Court of Justice for the Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa for genocide and war crimes and the formation of a separate Tamil Eelam.
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Alleging that in the Sri Lankan issue both the DMK and the AIADMK were staging a drama, Dr. Ramadoss said only the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the late Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran were genuinely concerned about the Sri Lankan Tamils.
Had they been alive, the Tamil Eelam would have become a reality. Only the PMK had been consistently fighting for a separate Eelam, he said and added that over a decade ago it had organised an Eelam Tamils Protection Conference.
Commending the student community for expressing their feelings for the Sri Lankan Tamils in an effective manner, he said they should go back to their studies now and resume the protests during the holidays.
During the run up to the general elections, the PMK would highlight the problem on the power front and its impact on industrial production in places like Coimbatore, the tardy growth of the economy and lull in farm activities.
On the controversy surrounding his reported observations on Dalits, Dr. Ramadoss said Dalit leaders should work for the socio economic development of the community and advise its youth to go for higher education.
Instead, some of them were misguiding the Dalit youth and promoting violence, he alleged.