DMDK not important enough to wake Stalin up from his nap, quips DMK’s Duraimurugan

Has Vijaykant’s DMDK dug its own political grave by bargaining too hard and too long with the two Dravidian majors? The doors seem to have almost closed on the DMK alliance at least, if DMK treasurer Duraimurugan’s address to reporters on Wednesday is anything to go by. The senior DMK leader declared that he sent back a DMDK delegation who wanted to team up with DMK instead of the AIADMK because the DMK has no seats left to give. And when asked if Stalin held the same view, Duraimurugan quipped that Stalin, who is out of town, was taking a nap when he called him, and that DMDK wasn’t important enough for him to wake the party chief up.

On Wednesday, a DMDK delegation led by Murugesan met Duraimurugan. “Vijayakant’s brother-in-law Sudheesh spoke to me over telephone. He said that they would like to move away from AIADMK alliance and join with us, and that they need a seat.” However, Duraimurugan said he told them that DMK leader MK Stalin, is out of town and that the DMK doesn’t have any more seats to give since the party had finalised its seat sharing agreement with others.

“Then I came home and former MLA Murugesan and another friend were there. I told them the same thing, that we don’t have any more seats to give. What is the use of coming to us now? I asked them why they were here. Their answer to that question was not satisfactory. When this happened, Jagathratchagan and Ranipet MLA Gandhi were with me. I told them categorically that we don’t have enough seats to give. Then they left,” Duraimurugan added.

When a reporter prompted Duraimurugan if DMDK was willing to accept the bare minimum number of seats, Duraimurugan asked, “Where do we have seats to give? All of them have signed agreements and have gone home, now where are seats? We ourselves have only 20 seats.”

Asked if he had discussed this with Stalin, Duraimurugan said, “I called him, but didn’t get through. Some lady said that the subscriber is out of network area,” he laughed, “I called him again now. I was told that he was sleeping. I said no need to disturb him since this is not an important issue.”

“He’ll come back tonight, I’ll tell him then,” Duraimurugan said.

DMDK had earlier almost finalised an alliance with the AIADMK, according to Deputy Chief Minister and party leader O Panneerselvam. However, on Wednesday, Vijayakant’s photo was removed from Prime Minister Modi’s rally stage in Kanchipuram, making it evident that negotiations had failed.