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N. Jothi joins DMK

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. Pichumani

Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi showing the Rs. 50 note that N. Jothi paid him to become a member of the DMK at Anna Arivalayam in Chennai on Friday. Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin is in the picture.

CHENNAI: Advocate and Member of Parliament N.Jothi, who quit the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alleging ill-treatment and lack of access to its general secretary Jayalalithaa, joined the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at the party headquarters here on Friday.

“The credit for having brought me here should go to them [the AIADMK leadership]…I think the entire AIADMK will come here soon,” said Mr.Jothi, who till recently handled 113 cases pertaining to Ms.Jayalalithaa in various States and the Supreme Court and argued for her in the TANSI land deal case in which she was acquitted. The TANSI case related to Ms. Jayalalithaa buying property belonging to a government-owned entity. She later returned the land to TANSI.

Mr. Jothi said that he had no option but to join the DMK after he quit the AIADMK. He received many threats, his family was threatened and he claimed there was a plot to “finish him off” in Parliament. “You all saw what they did when I came to the press conference at the Press Club,” he said.

When Mr.Jothi came to address the press earlier this week, advocates owing allegiance to the AIADMK lawyers’ wing protested outside and abused him. And though he had only been a source of trouble to the DMK, he was provided police protection a mere 15 minutes after he asked for it.

Asked if he had quit as MP (switching of parties attracts disqualification), Mr. Jothi, whose Rajya Sabha term ends early next month, said that he had sent the resignation letter in the afternoon. In the evening, he was inducted into the party as a primary member by party president M.Karunanidhi.

“Wait and see”

Asked about the backroom drama that preceded Mr. Jothi’s induction into the DMK, Mr. Karunanidhi joked: “Ms. Jayalalithaa has been saying that the whole of Tamil Nadu is dark [because of lack of adequate power]. Hence she has sent jothi [meaning light] to dispel the darkness.” Asked if he would be given any party post, Mr.Karunanidhi said: “wait and see.”

The move to join the DMK was set in motion by a friend of Mr. Jothi, who had access to Electricity Minister Arcot N.Veeraswami. It helped that all three came from the same district, Vellore. This was a very recent development. “Even when I met [MP] Kanimozhi in the Rajya Sabha about 20 days ago, there was no inkling of any of this,” he said and asserted that he did not have a choice. Asked if the DMK took him in because of the damage he could cause to Ms. Jayalalithaa – because he handled all her cases – he said: “I am an advocate. No one in the party [DMK] has asked me anything [relating to the cases]… They will not ask and I will not reveal.”

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