DMK’s Stalin meets Sonia, sets off speculation
NEWDELHI: A day after opposition DMK leader MK Stalin met President Pranab Mukherjee and submitted a memorandum on the events that took place in Tamil Nadu assembly last week, he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday and discussed the political situation.
“It was a courtesy call. He enquired about her (Sonia Gandhi) health and she enquired about party supremo Karunanidhi’s health condition. It was a formal discussion. They also discussed the political situation in Tamil Nadu,” said a DMK leader. The meeting lasted 25 minutes.
The leader said it “was also a strategy call” as Stalin came here for the first time after becoming the working president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The party is also an alliance partner of the Congress in the UPA.
“Yesterday (Thursday), around 7pm, Stalin met the President and gave him a memorandum regarding what happened in the Tamil Nadu assembly (on February 18),” the leader added.
Stalin, who is also leader of Opposition in the assembly, had filed a plea to seek annulment of the trust vote.
In his petition, the DMK leader also sought the court’s directions to assembly Speaker P Dhanapal to conduct the trust vote with a secret ballot under a monitoring committee.
Meanwhile, the Madras high CHENNAI: Deepa Jayakumar, niece of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, formally entered the political arena on Friday, the 69th birth anniversary of her aunt, ending months of speculation.
The “MGR Amma Deepa Peravai” is not a new party but an initiative to “revive Amma’s AIADMK,” Deepa said, adding she would contest elections from the RK Nagar constituency, the borough of the late Jayalalithaa.
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court on Wednesday declined to pass any interim order to put on hold or annul the trust vote won by chief minister E Palaniswami and adjourned the case filed by Stalin for February 27.
The court also ordered submission of the video footage of the happenings in the Tamil Nadu assembly on February 18 -the day Palaniswami sought and won the trust vote by securing 122 votes with only 11 against.