DMK to begin its campaign at Tiruchi on Apr 9

DMK to begin its campaign at Tiruchi on Apr 9
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

CHENNAI, APRIL 2: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi today announced that the party's election campaign would begin at Tiruchi on April 9. The list of candidates would be released in Chennai on April 14, he said.

Talking to mediapersons, he said the party's election manifesto would be released soon. He ruled out the possibility of discussing poll related issues with Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, who had arrived at Chennai this morning en route to Tiruchi.

He reiterated that he was happy with the MDMK general secretary Vaiko's decision to continue as a part of the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, even though the DMK-MDMK ties had been snapped.

When asked about the possibility of the New Justice Party (NJP) joining the DMK front, he said talks would be held if the NJP wanted to have them.

Regarding the MGR-ADMK's plea for more seats than the allotted three, Karunanidhi said it was their right to ask for more seats. ``But we have expressed our inability to offer more seats,'' he said.

Meanwhile, MGR-ADMK general secretary S. Thirunavukkarasu told mediapersons that his party had asked the DMK to allot as many seats as possible in addition to the three seats already allotted. His party had accepted the three seats and signed the agreement only because it did not not want to create any hitches in the seat-sharing process, he said.

Another DMK ally, Makkal Tamil Desam (MTD), led by former AIADMK Minister S. Kannappan, suffered a setback today with its vice-president Ramachandra Marudhupandyan resigning from the party and announcing his plans to form a new party for Yadavas.

Referring to Kannappan's TV interview on which he had said that the MTD was only for the backward and depressed classes and had nothing to do with the Yadavas, Karunanidhi said the MTD was floated for the welfare of the Yadavas.

Pudhiya Tamilagam (PT) president K. Krishnaswami said his party's candidates list would be released on April 10. He claimed that no ``anti-DMK'' sentiment was discernible in the state and the situation was favourable to the DMK front.