MDMK General Council convened by Vaiko tomorrow amids crisis

Chennai, Jan 9: The Marumalarchi DMK General Council will be held here tomorrow amids crisis in the party that threatens to divide it and undermine the hold General Secretary Vaiko has over the members.

Mr Vaiko's leadership is under serious challenge from two of his former lieutenants and Lok Sabha members Gingee Ramachandran and L Ganesan, who have decided to work independently with their supporters.

There will be no hurdle for Mr Vaiko to hold the party's General Council tomorrow, as the Madras High Court today refused to grant a stay against the meeting.

Though both Mr Ramachandran and Mr Ganesan claimed that they were opposing their leader Mr Vaiko for political reasons, especially for forging an alliance with the AIADMK as during the AIADMK regime Mr Vaiko was detained under POTA. But political analyists assume that the reason behind their opposition to Mr Vaiko was that the MDMK supremo was not allowing them to become ministers in the Union Cabinet.

Mr Vaiko alleged that it was because of Mr Ganesan that he had forcibly taken a decision to forge an alliance with the AIADMK, but now they were blaming him.

He said there was nothing wrong in forging an alliance with the AIADMK as there was no permanent friend or enemy in politics.

He charged that Mr Ganesan and Mr Ramachandran were opposing him at the behest of DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, in order to engineer a spilit in the MDMK.

Referring to the allegation that he was not allowing Mr Ramachandran and Mr Ganesan to become Union Ministers, Mr Vaiko said the party had taken adecision not join the Union Cabinet.

However, due to the continuous pressure of Mr Ramachandran and Mr Ganesan, he had approached the UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, informing them that the MDMK wants cabinet berths. But they informed him that the DMK was adequately represented in the Union Cabinet and the MDMK was part of the alliance with DMK.

He claimed that when he made this public neither Mrs Gandhi nor Dr Singh denied their remarks, even after repeated request from Mr Karunanidhi to deny such allegations.

The General Council convened by the rebel leaders Mr Ramachandran and Mr Ganesan at Salem on December 29 had not created any political significance. But as expected, the rebel leaders announced that the General Council had replaced Mr Vaiko with Mr Ramachandran as the new General Secretary of the party, while Mr Ganesan would continue as party's presidium Chairman.

The rebel leaders claimed that the General Council convened by them was valid whereas tomorrow's General Council convened by Mr Vaiko was illegal by citing the party's By-law that without the Presidium Chairman, the General Council could not be convened.

Mr Karunanidhi right from the beginning denied that he himself and the DMK were not be responsible, in any way, for the present crisis in the MDMK. The DMK had filed a defamation suit against Mr Vaiko for accusing the Chief Minister and the DMK. However, Mr Karunanidhi subsequently hinted that a new political constituent would join the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) in Tamil Nadu shortly.

The DMK extended an open invitation to the MDMK , led by rebel leaders to join the DPA, through a resolution adopted at the recent meeting of the DMK's high-level strategy committee, headquarters administrative committee and district secretaries, chaired by Mr Karunanidhi, consenting to admit the MDMK led by L Ganesan and Gingee N Ramachandran into the DPA.

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

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 the organisational elections to be conducted soon. They could seek posts right from branch offices to headquarters, the resolution added.

UNI