DMK MPs resign from Rajya Sabha

Chennai, Oct 17 : Three MPs of Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) have today submitted their resignation from the Rajya Sabha to the party President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in Chennai.

The three MPs - Siva, A A Jinnah and Vasanthi Stanley - have resigned following resolution adopted at an all party meeting stating that all MPs from the state would resign if the centre does not intervene and workout a ceasefire in Sri Lanka within two weeks.

Earlier, the MP Kanimozhi had also submitted her resignation to the DMK President.

Meanwhile, all the seven DMK ministers in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government are expected to submit their resignation letters to Karunanidhi on Friday to mount pressure on the government.

According to reports, a senior Tamil Nadu minister said that the seven ministers - Cabinet Ministers T R Baalu and A Raja, and Ministers of State - S S Palanimanickam, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, S Regupathy, K Venkatapathy and Radhika Selvi - would hand over post-dated letters addressed to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to Karunanidhi for quitting their parliamentary seats.

On October 14, at an all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu, convened by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, the Centre was served an ultimatum on the Sri Lankan Tamil problem and warned that all MPs from the state would resign en masse, if the government failed to halt the war in the island nation within two weeks.

In the strongest ever message from a key ally of the UPA regime, the DMK and other parties demanded that India halt all military aid to Sri Lanka, take steps to halt Colombo''s military offensive to ensure the return of peace, and come forward to despatch humanitarian aid.

ANI