DMK stands firm on Raja

CHENNAI - The DMK believes that there is no need to give in to the opposition parties’ demand for removing party leader and Telecom Minister A. Raja over the alleged 2G spectrum allocation controversy, sources said Sunday.

While backing Raja, the party was mindful of the responsibility of coalition politics which involved protecting interests of other partners, DMK sources said.

Speaking to IANS on the condition of anonymity, a senior DMK leader said till now there was no change in the party’s stand on supporting Raja.

During the day, DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi met Raja and senior MP T.R. Baalu.

According to sources, the DMK was of the view that there was no need to give in to the opposition’s blackmailing tactics like disruption of parliament.

“The opposition parties have been threatening that they will not allow the house to function Monday if Raja continues to hold office. That is nothing but blackmail,” said a DMK official.

The party also understood that coalition ‘dharma’ (responsibility) included saving other partners - here it is the Congress which is being pressurised by the opposition parties, he added.

He said when it came to the crunch, the interests of the party would stand above the people.

A major point weighing against DMK recalling Raja at this juncture was that that the rival AIADMK would claim victory and credit for it, he said.

AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa Thursday offered unconditional support to the Congress-led central government if the DMK withdrew support after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dropped Raja.

She said she was making the unilateral gesture on the presumption that the prime minister was not sacking Raja despite mounting demands for his ouster over the spectrum scam, fearing this could rob him of the majority support in the Lok Sabha and perhaps lead to mid-term elections.

DMK sources said the party may find it difficult to face the assembly election next year with the allegations being made against Raja, and more so in the Coimbatore belt where the AIADMK won a sizeable number of Lok Sabha seats.

Raja, 47, was elected from the Nilgiri constituency in the same belt. He got elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996 at the age of 33.

According to political commentator Cho Ramaswamy, Jayalalithaa was trying to make out that the Congress was hand in glove with Raja in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation if it did not act now.

“She declared that her party’s support is there if the prime minister is willing to take action,” Ramaswamy told IANS.

Raja is one of the trustees of the trust that would run a proposed hospital at Karunanidhi’s Gopalapuram residence after the chief minister and his wife Dayalu Ammal’s lifetime.