DMK issues legal notice to Vaiko for 'defamatory' statement

CHENNAI: Counsellors of M Karunanidhi, President of DMK, issued a legal notice to Vaiko for an allegedly "defamatory" statement the MDMK leader had made this morning at the Madurai airport, where he claimed that the DMK had offered his recent political ally Vijayakant Rs 500 crore, 80 assembly seats in the forthcoming elections, and the BJP had offered one Rajya Sabha seat and one central minister as packages to join ranks and take on the ruling AIADMK in the polls.

Vaiko had made the claim to illustrate his political partner's commitment to transparency and stand against corruption.

In the legal notice, DMK lawyers say: "..Our client states that you yourself had been in the alliance with the DMKand was fighting elections under the leadership of Dr M. Karunanidhi, and on that ground you are aware of the fact that our client does not indulge in such unethical electoral practice of offering money fore the alliance partners."

The legal notice charged that the statement was "motivated" with an intention to damage the reputation of M Karunanidhi and "defame" him in the eye of the public in Tamil Nadu, the DMK partymen and supporters.

The notice further added that Vaiko's charge of a monetary offer for alliance was denied by Premalatha Vijayakant, wife of DMDK leader Vijayakant, who had joined the People Welfare Front to add strength to a front coalescing against the two large Dravidian parties DMK and AIADMK.

MK Stalin, the heir-apparent at the DMK, had earlier clarified that an open invitation was floated to the DMDK to join forces against the ruling ADMK, but it never evolved to the state of alliance talks. Premalatha Vijayakant, while speaking to press members today, had corroborated with this version and vehemently denied the notion that there was a "bargain" between the parties.