In a clear indication of the widening rift between the DMK and Congress, the Dravidian party’s chief M. Karunanidhi will visit New Delhi on Monday to meet his jailed MP daughter Kanimozhi, whose arrest and prosecution in the 2G scam has angered the party, but is unlikely to meet Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
“I will be going to Tihar Jail to see my daughter Kanimozhi, (Kalaignar TV managing director) Sarath Kumar and (former Union communications and IT minister) Raja,” the former chief minister told reporters when asked if he would be visiting the national capital on Monday.
Asked if there was any likelihood of his meeting Mrs Gandhi, he said, “I think there won’t be any opportunity (to meet her).” All three have been lodged in Tihar Jail for their role in the 2G scam and Mr Karunanidhi is expected to meet them when they are produced before the CBI special court hearing the case.
Asked about the DMK’s ties with the Congress in the aftermath of the Assembly election debacle, Mr Karunanidhi replied, “It is not like what you think.” He did not elaborate.
Relations between the DMK and the Congress have been strained over various issues, including the CBI’s probe of the 2G scam and the poll fiasco of the DMK-led front.
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Was CPM behind EFR attack?
Age Correspondent
kolkata
May 22: The joint security forces on Sunday morning seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from Burithanmore ground behind the two-storied Manidaha CPI(M) local committee office. A question has started doing the rounds in police as well as political circles: Was the 2010 Silda Eastern Frontier Rifles camp attack a handiwork of the Maoists or the CPI(M)?
Significantly, the raid took place at a time when chief minister Mamata Banerjee ordered the police to recover all illegal fire arms from different pockets of the state without looking at the political colour. The list of arms surprisingly includes an AK-56 and INSAS rifles and 11 SLRs which are used by the armed police and paramilitary forces. The district police found the INSAS was among the fire arms looted from the EFR camp where the Maoists had killed 24 EFR personnel.
in a brazen attack on February 15, 2010. Confirming the finding, state DGP Naparajit Mukherjee said, “The arsenal number of the INSAS rifle matches with that of one of the fire arms looted from the EFR camp at Silda. We are probing into how this fire arm and other weapons were brought at the ground. Prima facie, the weaponry, covered in plastic, were kept hidden in a hole in the ground.”