A day after PMK switched sides to the AIADMK-led front in Tamil Nadu, its founder S Ramadoss on Friday said the “DMK’s attitude” drove it towards the rival camp.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai after releasing his party’s manifesto for Lok Sabha polls, Ramdoss said though the Congress wanted him to stay in UPA, the DMK’s attitude did not permit him to do so.
‘Whenever PMK aligned with the Poes Garden (AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa’s residence) it is due to the DMK’s attitude. DMK drove us to Poes garden´, he said.
Ramadoss said he will meet Jayalalithaa tomorrow for seat-sharing discussions. He alleged that a “conspiracy” by DMK had created a division between PMK and its close ally VCK (which is in the DMK-front).
“Both of us wanted to be in the same front. But, in 2006 (when the VCK had aligned with AIADMK for Assembly elections) as well as now the DMK hatched a conspiracy against this,” he said adding that the two wanted to work together in areas of common interest including the issue of Tamils living in Sri Lanka.
He said that he would divulge details about the ‘conspiracy´ theory in due course.
Asked if the party had a “tacit understanding” with VCK to help them in constituencies where PMK would not contest, he said his party workers had been directed to work ‘three times´ more to ensure the success of a candidate fielded by AIADMK-led front of which PMK would be a part.
{{/usCountry}}Asked if the party had a “tacit understanding” with VCK to help them in constituencies where PMK would not contest, he said his party workers had been directed to work ‘three times´ more to ensure the success of a candidate fielded by AIADMK-led front of which PMK would be a part.
{{/usCountry}}Ramadoss said senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and P Chidambaram had held last-minute parleys to persuade PMK against joining the AIADMK-front.
To a query on post-poll considerations on issues relating to prime ministerial candidate, Ramadoss said his party “would abide” by the decision taken by the front’s leader Jayalalithaa. However, he promised his support to a secular party in the post-poll scenario.
Lauding prime minister Manmohan Singh for providing “good governance” in the last five years, he, however, expressed his “dissatisfaction” with the Congress-led UPA on the way the Sri Lankan Tamils issue was being handled.
Saying that PMK was “most proactive” in raising the Tamils issue with the Centre, he said “I had spoken with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and argued with external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee while our MPs stalled proceedings in Parliament and even wore black attire to show our protest.”
Lambasting the DMK for its “failures” on various counts, Ramadoss, a vocal proponent of prohibition, alleged that members of the lower and middle class families in the state were being turned into “drunkards” by the government since liquor was a state-controlled business.