DMDK leaders revolt, want to align with DMK

Chennai, April 5  Ten district secretaries and five legislators of actor-turned-politician A. Vijaykant's DMDK on Tuesday said their party must align with the DMK and end its alliance with the four-party People's Welfare Front.

Addressing the media here, DMDK propaganda secretary V.C. Chandrakumar said: "The decision to align with the MNK (People's Welfare Front) was taken within Vijaykant's household, without consulting party leaders or cadres."

He said party leaders and cadres had told Vijaykant that the DMDK should align with the DMK to unseat the AIADMK in next month's Tamil Nadu assembly elections.

"Only DMDK MLAs and partymen were affected the most in the form of cases (registered against them) during the five years of AIADMK rule," he said.

He said the disgruntled party legislators and district secretaries were not quitting the DMDK now.

"We are appealing to Vijaykant through the media to rescind the alliance with MNK and join with DMK," he said.

On March 23, Vijaykant announced his decision to joing forces with MNK - a combination of two Communist parties, Dalit party VCK and Vaiko's MDMK.

The alliance declared that Vijaykant will be its chief ministerial candidate.

As per the deal, the DMDK will put up candidates in 124 of the 234 seats. The remaing will be shared among the other four parties.

"On March 24 itself we wrote to Vijaykant expressing our opposition to the alliance and requesting him to review the decision," Chandrakumar said. "We told him the decision to align with MNK will destroy the party."

He said 95 percent of party members favoured an alliance with DMK.

"The decision to align with the AIADMK in 2011 was in line with the party cadres' wish. Today the situation has reversed," he said.

On Monday, after sealing a seat sharing pact with the Congress, the DMK said no more parties will be included in the alliance.