Captain sends letter seeking to meet CM

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DMDK chief Vijayakanth has sought an appointment with chief minister Jayala­li­t­haa ‘to discuss the proble­ms in (his) constituency’.

This is seen as an attempt to counter alleged moves by the ruling party to trigger de­­sertions in his camp and strip him of the status of the Leader of Opposition.

This may be Captain’s way of ave­n­ging the embarrassment ca­used by his four MLAs ca­l­ling on chief minister Jay­alalithaa under the pretext of discussing the problems in their constituencies.

J. Chandrakumar, the pa­r­ty’s whip in the Assembly who is his most trusted lie­u­tenant, was chosen to fire the first salvo.

He delivered the letter to speaker V. Dh­a­napal on Monday asking him to arrange a meeting with the chief minister.

Ca­p­tain would bring along four of his legislators — Se­nthilkumaran, Bala Aruls­e­l­van, Anagai Murugesan and Ms Shanthi — for the important discussion with the CM, the letter said.

“Speaker asked me why we chose to give the letter to him (instead of handing over the request at the CM’s office). I told him we are MLAs and so look up to him for help and protection. He said nothing, just took the letter,” Chandr­a­kumar told Deccan Chronicle.

Though he refused to ela­b­orate on the letter strategy, other DMDK seniors in­t­erpreted the move as an at­tempt to trivialise the meetings with the CM that the four ‘rebels’ with their ‘co­n­stituency-concerns’ had.

Some others thought Capt­a­in was trying to pre-empt any excitement from more such ‘rebels’ calling on Ja­y­alalithaa, even as strong ru­mours did the rounds in Fort St. George that two or three DMDK legislators are likely to meet the CM on Tuesday.

Interestingly, Vijayaka­n­th has decided to get four of his MLAs each day to present letters to the Speaker seeking CM’s appointment.

“We have been told to prepare a list of 15-20 problems in our constituencies”, a DMDK senior told DC. “My own hunch is that the CM will meet us as otherwise, it would be apparent that the four rebels got special treatment”.