MDMK departure from UPA was on the card: Congress

Pondicherry, Mar 5 (UNI) AICC General Secretary V Narayanaswamy MP today said the exit of MDMK from the DPA was on the expected lines.

Addressing a press conference here, he said Mr Vaiko, while in the DPA alliance was already in touch with AIADMK to forge an alliance, and it was known to Mr Karunanidhi also.

Mr Narayanaswamy said Mr Vaiko will regret his decision later, since it was a usual practice for Ms Jayalalitha to invite other political parties for alliances and to ignore them after the purpose is served.

Referring to Pondicherry, he said AICC Secretary in-charge of Pondicherry B K Hariprasad, would soon visit Pondicherry to initiate alliance talks with other parties and finalise it.

He said he had called on Sonia Gandhi two days back and apprised the need to have alliance talks at the earliest.

He said that Congress has a strong base here and is leading the DPA.

Mr Narayanaswamy said the party is aware of a Congress legislator, accompanying PMC President P Kannan to the Poes Garden to negotiate an alliance with the AIADMK and the matter was informed to the party high command.

Necesswary action would be initiated against the MLA, he added.

On the issue of police registering cases against DMK Convenor and former Chief Minister R V Janakiraman and other DMK workers, Mr Narayanasamy demanded that the election department shoulder the responsibility for the incident.

He said the absence of an official explanation led to the untoward incident and demanded an explantion from the department concerned.

He wanted the withdrawal of cases against Mr Janakiraman.

The UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are expected to visit here soon for election campaign, he added.

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