DMK MP Kanimozhi for, MK Stalin against, alliance with Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress circles are intrigued by reports on the Enforcement Directorate’s plan to charge sheet DMK MP Kanimozhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as it comes at a time when the party leadership is renewing attempts to revive an alliance with DMK for the Lok Sabha polls.

Reports said ED, “has received a go-ahead from the Law Ministry after Solicitor-General Mohan Parasaran reviewed his own opinion of July 2013”. The law officer, according to reports, said that ED is free to prosecute Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, under PMLA in connection with `200 crore transferred by one of the accused in the 2G scam to the DMK family owned Kalaignar TV. It added the SG also suggested that the anti-money laundering agency should not delay prosecution as that would give enough ground to the accused to challenge the propertyattachment order.

What has made the report, “interesting and intriguing,” as one party leader put it, is the fact that a recent meeting between Karunanidhi and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad took place in Chennai despite the the DMK chief’s son political heir, MK Stalin’s opposition to any alliance with Congress. There are also indications about differences within the Karunanidhi family, with Kanimozhi reportedly in favor of reviving the alliance. It is also believed in political circles that the Marans, grand nephews of Karunanidhi, is aligned with Kanimozhi in the DMK first family’s politics.

It is also known that ever since Kanimozhi became an MP, she had been acting as her father’s and party’s liaison in Delhi with the Congress leadership, a job earlier done by the Marans. Despite the DMK-Congress break-up over the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, both parties had joined hands to enable Kanimozhi’s reelection to the Rajya Sabha.