DMK, MDMK bonhomie in full flow

By Our Staff Reporter

TUTICORIN, APRIL 14. The political bonhomie that emerged between the DMK and MDMK on the eve of the last Lok Sabha elections now appears to have gained momentum with the top brass of both the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) throwing sufficient hints at the need to strengthen their cordial ties in order to defeat their `common enemies' in the political arena - the Congress(I) at the national level and the AIADMK in the state.

The function held at the temple town of Tiruchendur, where the statue of former State Minister, the late K. P. Kandasamy, was unveiled on Thursday night, provided an opportunity to the Chief Minister and DMK president, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, and the MDMK general secretary, Mr. Vaiko, MP, to give a fervent appeal to the activists of the two major Dravidian parties in this regard.

Not only Mr. Karunanidhi and Mr. Vaiko but the other frontline leaders who participated in the function also lauded the coming together of the two parties after seven years. They used their eloquence to wipe out the bitter feelings which snowballed into an inner-party crisis in the DMK, resulting in a split following the expulsion of Mr. Vaiko from the party in 1993.

A large number of activists of the DMK and MDMK from various parts of the southern districts including Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari attended the function, the first of its kind in the southern Tamil Nadu in the recent past, which saw the two leaders sharing a public platform.

Mr. Karunanidhi himself recalled the pleasant past when he had fine relations with Mr. Vaiko, even while likening the bitterness that interrupted the cordiality to bittergourd served as part of a feast, which was good for health, albeit its unpleasant taste.

Drawing an analogy between his party's alliance with the MDMK to the Cauvery and Coleroon rivers, he said just as the two rivers had water of the same quality, the DMK and MDMK, despite being two separate entities, had a common ideology. The alliance was a natural one while there were also unnatural alliances in which parties remained aloof like water and oil, he added.

Making it clear that the MDMK would be part of the DMK-led front during the next Assembly poll, Mr. Vaiko said the two parties would rise like a pair of spears and swords and face unitedly with vigour any challenge thrown at them at the hustings.

The DMK under Mr. Karunanidhi's leadership would emerge successful and form the government after the poll, he said.

The two parties would remain as a bulwark to protect the Tamils' interests, he asserted.

Leaders of the DMK and MDMK, however, carefully avoided any reference or suggestion to merge the two parties, confining themselves to the level of ``striving together and marching separately''.

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Section  : Regional
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