india

Updated: Jan 13, 2019 07:46 IST

Tamil Nadu’s opposition major Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) have been trading charges for the last one week, and the state’s ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (AIADMK), led by CM Edappadi K Palaniswami, sees this as a ploy to isolate it from mainstream politics.

According to ‘Namadhu Amma’, the mouthpiece of AIADMK, DMK chief MK Stalin is staging a drama to help Dhinakaran poach the AIADMK’s space in the TN politics.

“Both Stalin and Dhinakaran are playing to a script agreed upon to hoodwink the TN people. It is intended to create a perception that the competition is only between DMK and AMMK,” a column reads in Namdhu Amma.

It also accused the DMK of helping Dhinakaran to win the bypoll in Jayalalithaa’s RK Nagar seat in 2017.

“Though DMK has a decisive vote bank, it bagged only around 34,000 votes in RK Nagar by-poll. Hence, it is clear that DMK had helped Dhinakaran’s victory,” the column said.

The AIADMK paper also accused the DMK and AMMK of collusion to win in the bypoll for Thiruvarur, which was represented by DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi. “However, the by-poll was cancelled by the EC last week. When Stalin’s sister and DMK women wing secretary Kanimozhi was acquitted in 2G spectrum case, Dhinakaran had wished her. He also opened his party office on June 3rd last, coinciding with the birthday of Karunanidhi. So, it is obvious that DMK and AMMK have a secret relationship to oust the AIADMK from politics,”Namadhu Amma alleged.

However, DMK MLA and former Chennai City Corporation mayor Ma Subramanian denied AIADMK’s charge and said both the AIADMK and AMMK are the DMK’s political opponents.

“For DMK, both CM Edappadi Palaniswami who is leading AIADMK and TTV Dhinakaran are same. We have soft corner towards none. When Dhinakaran teased the DMK that it was afraid of the Thiruvarur bypoll, our leader countered it, calling him ‘20 rupees MLA’,” he said.

During the RK Nagar by-poll, the ruling AIADMK as well as the opposition alleged cash distribution by supporters of Dhinakaran, who contested as an independent, issuing Rs 20 as a token to get the promised cash.