DMDK suffers jolt; its heavy weight, Panrutty S Ramachandran quits party

CHENNAI: Beset with problems including his own MLAs rebelling against him, DMDK founder Vijayakant's woes continued today with the resignation of a senior leader, spelling more trouble to the beleaguered party.

Deputy Leader of the DMDK Legislature, Panrutty S Ramachandran today resigned as MLA besides quitting the party, on health grounds.

He submitted his resignation letter to Speaker P Dhanapal, resigning his Alandur assembly seat, official sources said.

He had also informed Vijayakant of his decision to quit the seven year-old party. However, party sources close to the leader revealed they had "only information" about Ramachandran's exit but had not received any written communication so far.

A soft-spoken leader with a rich political knowledge, Ramachandran was reportedly sulking of late alleging that he was being ignored in major affairs of the party.

The exit of the veteran leader, a former AIADMK leader and an associate of MG Ramachandran (MGR), has only compounded the problems of Vijayakant, addressed as 'Captain' by his followers.

Captain's ship has not been sailing smoothly in recent months as seven of his MLAs, including one woman legislator, rebelled against him and switched loyalty to AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

DMDK is the main opposition party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly with a 29 MLA strength in the 234-member house.

Technically, the MLAs remain in DMDK though they are allotted seats in a separate row in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

DMDK suffered a major drubbing in Assembly polls in Delhi where its candidates put up a pathetic show and forfeited deposit.