The crisis in DMDK deepened with a second pair of its MLAs meeting chief minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday amid rumours that the party is headed for a split as some seniors are unhappy with the treatment meted out by leader Vijayakanth. Making matters worse, the DMDK leader vented his anger on reporters who accosted him at the airport to seek his reaction to legislators calling on the AIADMK supremo.
Several journalist bodies held demonstrations and issued statements demanding that the macho hero apologise but Captain would not relent. Having flown to Madurai for a Bakrid celebration, he told his cheering audience that he was not bothered about MLAs leaving the party as only the people and party cadres were important to him. He declared that he would work ‘really hard’ to defeat AIADMK in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
On Saturday morning, DMDK legislators S. Michael Rayappan (Radhapuram) and C. Arun Pandian (Peravurani) called on the CM at the Secretariat. Emerging from the meeting, they told reporters that she responded positively to their plea for development works in their constituencies.
Lavishing praise on the government, they parroted what colleagues S. Sunderarajan and K. Tamil Azhagan had said on Friday after a similar meeting with the CM, “We took up important issues for the betterment of life in our constituencies where people have reposed confidence in us and voted for us”.
The meeting of the four MLAs with the CM provided fresh ammunition to political observers to get the requiem ready for Captain’s position as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly even as the House is getting spruced up for diamond jubilee celebrations next month.
DMDK occupies the number 2 position in the House with 29 MLAs while the DMK with 23 is in third place.