Karuna blames inner-party differences for DMK's rout

In a candid admission four months after his party's rout in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Friday said internal differences and the activities of some party men resulted in the "very huge defeat."

"We faced a very huge defeat in the assembly elections due to the competition that arose among us and the activities of certain persons," the 88 year-old DMK patriarch said without elaborating.

This is the first time Karunanidhi has come out in the open blaming inner-party differences for the DMK's dismal showing though he had warned against such differences prior to the April 13 elections.

DMK finished third in the 234-member assembly bagging just 23 seats and yielded the main opposition status to DMDK headed by actor-politician Vijaykant, whose party was an ally of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which swept the polls.

Karunanidhi, in a letter to his party workers urging them to ensure DMK's good show in next months civic polls, said the ruling AIADMK was trying to exploit the present plight of his party and act against it, even "not allowing us to discharge our democratic duties in the assembly."

Alleging that the AIADMK had won the elections with "beastly power," and was on the 'peak of arrogance', the former chief minister said it was time for his partymen to teach their arch-rival a lesson, and utilise the civic polls for this purpose.

He claimed the ruling party could "indulge in all sorts of malpractices," including use of money to retain its winning streak and said it was one of the reasons that partymen were being arrested under land grab charges and re-arrested if they were granted bail.

This was being done to prevent leaders (such as Veerapandi S Arumugam, K N Nehru, K Ponmudi) from working for the party during the local body polls, Karunanidhi claimed.

He also charged state Election Commission with favouring AIADMK, alleging that it had given prior information to the latter on reserved seats, making it easier for the party to announce its candidates in advance.