Karuna ridicules Jaya for posing challenge on DMK office issue

Chennai, Oct 14: In continuing war of words, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today (Oct 14) sought to ridicule Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for throwing a challenge at him over the extent of DMK headquarters land here, saying she had misunderstood his explanation over the issue.

The two are locked in a bitter exchange of words since Jayalalithaa recently alleged that the DMK office was built on land grabbed from a zamindar family in 1972. Denying her contention that he had said DMK office was built on 25 grounds (one ground is 2,400 square feet), Karunanidhi in a statement said he had only stated that one cawny of land was equivalent to 25 grounds.

The sale deed had clearly stated that the nett extent of land sold was three cawnies, 12 grounds and 1951 sq.feet, he said. 'I had not said the entire area is 25 grounds. I had only explained that one cawny was roughly around 25 acres. But Jayalalithaa had misunderstood my explanation and challenged that if the area exceeded 25 grounds, whether the surplus land will be handed over to the government', he said.

Jayalalithaa yesterday alleged that Karunanidhi had used "strong-arm methods" in acquiring the plot and her political mentor late M G Ramachandran was expelled from the DMK only because he had questioned it.

PTI