The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : We were eased out, says DPI

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Friday, Sep 29, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

We were eased out, says DPI

Special Correspondent

Jayalalithaa gives `best wishes to brother Thol. Thirumavalavan'

Thol. Thirumavalavan

CHENNAI: Dalit Panthers of India chief Thol. Thirumavalavan on Thursday said his party had not quit the AIADMK-led front on its own. A situation was created wherein it had to leave the alliance.

He was addressing a press conference at the DPI office shortly after AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa advised him against "hasty political decisions."

Without referring to the DPI decision to quit the AIADMK-led alliance and join the Democratic Progressive Alliance led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Ms. Jayalalithaa, in a statement, gave "best wishes to my brother Thol. Thirumavalavan wherever he is. As a sister, I wish to tell him that impulse of anger and hastiness will not yield benefits in politics."

Mr. Thirumavalavan said he failed to understand why his party was eased out of the AIADMK front, though it had agreed to all conditions on allocation of seats for the local bodies elections. All his efforts to contact Ms. Jayalalithaa to sort out problems relating to seat sharing failed.

In the absence of any positive response from the AIADMK leadership till 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the DPI decided to join the Democratic Progressive Alliance following feelers from the DMK, "as we did not want to become political orphans."

He asked Ms. Jayalalithaa to make herself more accessible to her own party activists and leaders of alliance partners. He denied any ulterior political motive behind the DPI decision, which was taken in an hour.

Mr. Thirumavalavan said two issues — DPI's support to the Eelam Tamils, party MLAs commending the DMK Government's decision not to de-reserve four panchayats including Pappapatti and Keeripatti and give tax concessions for movies with Tamil titles — might have been the irritants.

He said though the DPI had sought more seats in some districts, it had agreed for four per cent of seats earmarked for it in the alliance without a murmur. Had the seat-sharing talks for all posts and wards been held at the State level, many problems could have been averted. With local AIADMK leaders not willing to share seats, the district level talks ran into rough weather.

Even on the last day for filing nominations, problems continued in three districts where the DPI wanted more than four per cent of the seats.

The issue was sorted out in Perambalur district, thanks to his intervention. Even as he was continuing his efforts to find a solution to the issue, the AIADMK leadership asked its activists to file nomination papers in the wards allotted to the DPI, he alleged.

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