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AIADMK leader dares Vazhapadi Ramamurthy to recontest LS seat with BJP's support

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham today mounted its attack against Union Petroleum Minister and Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress leader Vazhapadi K Ramamurthy, daring him to quit his Lok Sabha membership from Salem and contest again from there with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In a statement in Madras, AIADMK deputy general secretary K A Sengottaiyan said Ramamurthy had won the last election and become a minister only on the basis of AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha's popularity. "Now, he is interested only in sticking to the post of Union minister," he charged.

He claimed that Ramamurthy would not be able to secure his deposit if he contested from any constituency in the state.

Given this circumstance, it was highly unnecessary for the TRC leader to criticise the AIADMK and Jayalalitha and incur the wrath of the AIADMK cadre, he added.

Terming Ramamurthy as a "blatant opportunist", Sengottaiyan said the former's claim that Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had called on the AIADMK chief at Hyderabad recently was not true.

Sengottaiyan said though the AIADMK was part of the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre, Jayalalitha had always been vocal in voicing her concerns over the attitudes of the BJP.

He recalled that Ramamurthy had criticised the BJP as communal and its leaders as rank communalists. But now the same leaders were "Mahatmas" to him, Sengottaiyan said.

This was enough evidence for Ramamurthy's doublespeak, he added.

Describing him as a 'betrayer', he said the AIADMK cadre would never tolerate Ramamurthy continuing his "antics" of criticising Jayalalitha.

Another AIADMK deputy general secretary, K Kalimuthu, had launched a similar broadside against Ramamurthy yesterday.

UNI

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