DMK extends open invite to MDMK to join DPA

Chennai, Jan 6 (UNI) The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) today extended an open invitation to the Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK), led by rebel leaders to join DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA).

A meeting of DMK high-level strategy committee and headquarters administrative committee, chaired by DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi here, adopted a resolution consenting to admitting the MDMK led by L Ganesan and Gingee N Ramachandran into the DPA.

Expressing happiness that leaders like Mr Ganesan and Mr Ramachandran were dissociating themselves from Vaiko, dismayed with his style of functioning, the resolution said whether the two headed the MDMK after obtaining Election Commission recognition or functioned independently, they were welcome into the DMK fold.

The DMK was also willing to admit those who wished to quit the MDMK and join the party. These MDMK cadre, after they joined the DMK would become eligible to contest for party posts in organisational elections to be conducted soon and seek posts right from branch offices to headquarters, the resolution said.

After judging the 'right and wrong' MDMK leaders could forge an alliance with DMK or join the party, the resolution said, adding the DMK, following the ideals of rationalist leader Periyar E V Ramasamy and Dravidian stalwart C N Annadurai, would welcome them.

The meeting, urged the Centre to take all steps to find a lasting solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. It thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for satisfactorily replying to Mr Karunanidhi's letters on the issue.

The committee said the party's women's wing would take out rallies here and in district headquarters on January 10, to press for legislation to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in state legislatures and Parliament.

As inter-state water disputes posed threats to nation's unity and integrity, the Centre, considering the interests of farmers and agriculture development, should nationalise rivers and to begin with, link peninsular rivers in the south, it said.

The meeting, thanked the Centre for the legislation to implement 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in higher educational institutions in the country.

It urged the Centre to immediately give effect to the order and ensure reservation came into force from this year onwards, and demanded 27 per cent reservation in the private sector.

UNI