Third Front has insulted Kalam: Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi on Thursday charged the eight-party United National Progressive Alliance with 'insulting' President A P J Abdul Kalam by supporting his candidature for a second term without taking his consent.

'By announcing his candidature without even taking his consent indirectly, the Third Front leaders have pushed him to a difficult situation and made him answerable to it', he wrote in DMK mouthpiece Murasoli.

Taking a dig at AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, whose party is a part of the UNPA, he said her boycott of the meeting with Kalam, after declaring support to him, was the most indecent act.

Recalling his meeting with Kalam in New Delhi in December last, Karuanidhi said he personally requested him to contest for a second term but the President expressed his wish to spend the rest of his life on academic activities.

He said the Third Front's efforts to field Kalam against UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil reflected not their respect to the leader's intelligence and scientific knowledge but only exposed their political vengeance.

Karunanidhi expressed hope that Kalam would understand the 'truth' behind the move.

Rebuffing criticisms that Pratibha Patil had been chosen last after considering various names, he said it had been a practice for long to zero in on a candidate after several rounds of considerations.

"Will the Third Front leaders come forward to explain how the attempt to make Patil the first woman President of India can be construed as a joke," he asked.