ADMK-PMK tie-up would not affect alliance -- Jaya

ADMK-PMK tie-up would not affect alliance -- Jaya
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

CHENNAI, FEB 11: AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha today said her party's tie-up with the PMK for the coming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls would not adversely affect the AIADMK-led alliance in the state.

Talking to reporters here on her return from Bangalore, where she had been on a private visit, she said, "There is no change in our (AIADMK'S) relations with the Congress and TMC."

Asked how the AIADMK and PMK had come to an understanding since the ideologies of the two parties differed, Jayalalitha said, "Because we have different idologies, we are running separate parties."

She replied in the negative when asked if the entry of the PMK into the alliance would make seat sharing more difficult and pointed out that it was always a difficult exercise to work out the number of seats for partners in any alliance.

Talks were going on and everything would work out satisfactorily, she said, adding that on Tuesday she would give details on the pattern of seat sharing.

Jayalalitha dismissed as "speculative", reports in a section of the press about the number of seats to be allotted by the AIADMK to its alliance partners.

To yet another question about the PMK's links with the LTTE, Jayalalitha said the PMK was demanding a separate `Eelam' and not a separate Tamil Nadu.

When asked about progress of talks with TMC founder G K Moopanar, Jayalalitha said, "This is not a cricket match where you can give a running commentary."

"You ask Moopanar," she said in response to a query as to when an AICC emissary was expected in the city to hold talks with her on seat-sharing.

Asked to comment on the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI) convenor R Thirumavalavan's remark that his party would have no truck with any front in which the PMK was a constituent, she said, "You ought to ask him."

DPI, a constituent of the AIADMK-led `Secular Front', had been at loggerheads with the PMK, whose founder Dr S Ramadoss had alleged that DPI was attempting to create communal clashes in northern districts of Tamil Nadu.

She claimed that the AIADMK-led front would sweep the coming polls to the state assembly.