Royal snub to Rahul as Karunanidhi roots for PC as PM
MONDAY, 31 DECEMBER 2012 00:26 KUMAR CHELLAPPAN | CHENNAI
In what is seen as a royal snub to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, DMK chief M Karunanidhi has pitched in for Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram as the next Prime Minister.
Addressing a jam packed audience at Kamarajar Arangam on Saturday evening, Karunanidhi endorsed the words of other speakers who demanded that Chidambaram should be made the next Prime Minister.
“Chidambaram was a Minister of State in the Department of Personnel and went on to become the Home Minister as well as the Finance Minister. What role will he play next? The demand that a Tamilian attired in a dhoti should become the Prime Minister has evoked cheers from those present here,” Karunanidhi said in his speech. The audience which included Chidambaram (67), his mother Lakshmi Aachi, actors Rajanikanth, Kamal Hassan, TNCC president BS Gnanadesikan and hundreds of Congress workers received Karunanidhi’s comment with a thunderous applause.
The function was held in connection with the release of a book “P Chidambaram, Oru Paarvai”, a compilation of articles on Chidambaram by leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Karunanidhi reminded the audience that Chidambaram played a crucial role in launching Tamil Maanila Congress with GK Moopanar in protest against the Congress High Command’s move to align with the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa, the former’s bête noir and nemesis.
"Chidambaram came out of the TMC in 2001 in protest against Moopanar's decision to fight the Tamil Nadu Assembly election in the company of Jayalalithaa," he said.
This is the first time that Karunanidhi has made his choice for Prime Ministership known to the general public. As there is no other Tamil politician who matches the stature of Chidambaram, the DMK chief has made it clear that Chidambaram is his choice for the Prime Ministerial candidate. What unites Karunanidhi and Chidambaram is their strong personal dislike for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. Jayalalithaa.
The only reasonable surmise that anyone can draw from the statement of Karunanidhi is that he has openly declared himself against the candidature of Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
"Everybody hopes that the Congress High Command would read this signal from Karunanidhi," said V Sundaram, general secretary, Janata Party.
He pointed out that Karunanidhi's support for Chidambaram comes at a time when the Congress has made it known that Rahul Gandhi would lead the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
It is an open secret that the young Gandhi does not like Karunanidhi. He has shown his aversion to the DMK chief by not calling on him whenever he visited Chennai. But Gandhi found time to call on the then Governor S S Barnala when he came to Chennai during the 2011 election campaign.
The Congress scion, in a campaign meeting during the 2011 assembly elections, had called for 'the removal of all nonagenarian leaders and infusion of young blood in politics.'
Meanwhile, Chidambaram is planning to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha election from the Union Territory of Pondicherry as chances of him getting re-elected from Sivaganga looked bleak.
He scraped through Sivaganga in the 2009 election by a wafer thin majority of 3354 votes.
Raja Kannappan, his main opponent has filed a petition in the Madras High Court challenging his election. Since the Congress is in a pretty bad shape in Tamil Nadu, Chidambaram is likely to move over to Pondicherry. He visits the union territory on a regular basis under the pretext of worshipping at the Lord Saturn Temple at Karaikkal.
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