Cong's Exit Won't Affect Our Vote-bank: As Rift Widens, DMK's Duraimurugan Hits out at Old Ally

Chennai: The alliance between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress is going through a patchy phase with voices from both camps speaking out against each other.

Senior leader and DMK treasurer Duraimurugan on Wednesday said his party’s vote-bank would not be affected even if the Congress chooses to walk out of the alliance.

“Those (Congress) who want to leave us, can do so. What’s there for us to lose? We don’t care about the Congress exiting the alliance. I specifically do not care. The grand old party’s move would not have any impact on our votes. Only if it existed (Congress vote bank) should we have any concern,” he said at a Pongal festival event organised by party cadres in Vellore.

Duraimurugan's statement came a day after another senior party functionary, TR Baalu, said only time will tell if the DMK-Congress alliance would continue or not.

When asked about Baalu’s remark, Duraimurugan said, “He said time will tell, but I am giving the answer now.”

Soon after, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram hit out at Duraimurugan and asked him about the Vellore Lok Sabha by-election in which the latter’s son, DM Kathir Anand, was declared winner. At the time, the two parties were in alliance.

When a response was sought from Tamil Nadu Congress president KS Alagiri, he said he is yet to listen to what Duraimurugan had to say and will not be able to comment until then.

The rift between the DMK and its ally came out in the open last Friday when Alagiri issued a statement accusing the former of not following the coalition dharma and criticising party chief MK Stalin over the seat-sharing deal in the recently held local body elections.

On Tuesday, Baalu said, “The statement made by the Tamil Nadu Congress president is a direct accusation on the DMK president. Our party cadres are disappointed with his remark. Instead, they (Congress leaders) could have spoken to us directly. Only time will tell if the alliance continues or not.”

The DMK had sent Baalu as its representative to attend a meeting of opposition parties, headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on January 13. The meeting was to decide on a strategy against the government over the Citizenship Amendment Act and proposed implementation of the National Register of Citizens. Though Baalu was in the national capital, he skipped the meeting.