Left attack against Cong will not affect ties with DMK

Chennai, July 24 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said the Left parties agitation against the nuke deal, the alleged ''debauchery'' of the UPA government during the trust vote and its threat that it would work to bury the Congress, would not come in the way of the DMK party's relationship with the CPI and CPI(M) in the state.

The CPI and CPI(M) are two key allies of the DMK led DPA in Tamil Nadu and as they had been doing before pulling out of the UPA, have been supporting the ruling DMK from the outside in Tamil Nadu.

Adddressing a press conference at the party headquarters soon after returning here from New Delhi tonight, Mr Karunanidhi who answered questions on the Left parties breaking ties with the UPA on nuke deal said if one studies the political history of the country the stand of a political party vis a vis the Centre has not been necessarily the same with regard to the state politics.

This will be clear if you study our political history, he pointed out.

Asked what the DMK's stand would be on the Left parties's current agitations and programmes to go to the people on the nuke deal and the alleged failure of the UPA government on issue like price rice and inflation in the wake of their failure to dislodge the Manmohan Singh government through trust vote, Mr Karunanidhi said he would consult senior leaders of his party and the high power comittee would take a decision.

We will announce our stand to you after taking a decision, he said.

Asked about the CPI((M) expelling Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for not resigning his post after the Left parties pulled the plug on the UPA necessitating the trust vote he said, there was no need for Somnath to resign his post in the first place.

''However, I have spoken about this in New Delhi yesterday and I don't want to express any more views on this subject,'' Mr Klrunanidhi said.

Asked if he had taken up the issue of recurring attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Lankan navy Mr Karunanidhi said the Prime Minister had promised that he would thrash out the issue with the Lankan government at the forthcoming SAARC summit in Colombo.

On the Sethusamudram Proect in the light of the argument being put forth by the Centre that Lord Rama himself had destroyed the Ram Setu after bringing Sita back from Lanka, Mr Karunanidhi said the matter was in the Supreme Court and he could not say anything on that.

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