Minister Veerasamy trains his guns on Vijayakanth

Chennai, Feb 13 (UNI) A day after Chief Minister M Karunanidhi lashed out at actor-politician Vijayakanth for his criticism of the DMK Government, it was the turn of Electricity Minister and DMK Treasurer Arcot N Veerasamy to train his guns on the DMDK founder.

Flaying Mr Vijayakanth's remark that Mr Karunanidhi had never attended the assembly sessions while in the Opposition, Mr Veerasamy, in a statement here today, said a perusal of the assembly records would show that the DMK Chief had indeed attended the sessions and had made speeches while sitting in the Opposition benches.

He also recalled how Mr Karunanidhi as the Opposition leader proved wrong an AIADMK Minister's allegation that he had bought a farm in the name of his son M K Azhagiri.

''The then Assembly Speaker K Rajaram made a statement to this effect in the presence of former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran in the House'', Mr Veerasamy pointed out and recalled the long speech of Mr Karunanidhi made in the House on the issues of 'Erukancherri problem and Bulgaria-Baltica Shipment issue.

Denying Mr Vijayakanth's charge that the opposition party members were not given enough time to speak in the House, Mr Veerasamy said the DMDK Chief had attended the Assembly session only 31 out of 96 days.

On many occasions, he had left the House after signing the Assembly registry, he pointed out and said Mr Vijayakanth had not even spoken once during last year when the Assembly met for 49 days.

Stating that opposition members were given more time to speak in the House, he said the opposition AIADMK members spoke for 41.17 hours, while the members of the ruling DMK spoke for only 27.8 hours.

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