JCD Prabhakaran quits Congress, joins Samajwadi Party

Chennai, Apr 16 (UNI) Disillusioned with the Congress over not identifying with the masses, senior leader and former MLA J C D Prabhakaran today quit the party and joined the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Mr Prabhakaran met SP Tamil Nadu unit President M Gopalakrishnan and joined the party along with his supporters.

Mr Prabhakaran, who was made State Vice-President of the Samajawadi Party, would contest from his birth place, Dindigul in the May 8 Assembly polls.

Welcoming him into the party, Mr Gopalakrishnan gave him the ''A'' and ''B'' forms to enable him to file his nomination papers.

A staunch supporter of AIADMK founder late MGR for decades, Mr Prabhakaran was elected to the State assembly from Villivakkam in the city during the 1980 MGR regime.

He fell out with the AIADMK in 1990 and joined the now defunct Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), floated by Mr G K Moopanar in protest against Congress's alliance with the AIADMK in 1996. He remained a close confidante of Mr Moopanar, who later merged his party with the Congress.

Affectionately called as ''JCD'' in political and sports circles, Mr Prabhakaran told UNI that the TMC, which enjoyed the goodwill of the masses, should not have merged with the Congress.

Terming the Congress party ''confusion-ridden'' and having alienated itself from the peoplr, ''he said it had lost contact with the people, unlike the TMC which had a good rapport with the public''.

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