Fourteen DMK MPs submit resignations to Karunanidhi

The union ministers who handed over their resignation letters to DMK chief are T R Baalu (Shipping), A Raja (Telecom), Subulakshmi Jagadeesan (Minister of State for Social Justice), S Raghupathy (Minister of State for Environment), S S Palanimanickam (Minister of State for Finance), K Venkatapathy (Minister of State for Law) and V Radhika Selvi (Minister of State for Home).

While Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi sent her resignation to her farther on Wednesday, other three Rajya Sabha members of DMK–Trichy N Siva, Vasanthi Stanley and A A Jinnah–submitted their letters to the party chief on Thursday.

The other MPs who submitted their resignations to the party chief are C Kuppusami, K C Palanisamy, E G Sugavanam, A K S Vijayan, M S K Bhavani Rajenthiran, A Krishnasamy and Danapal Venugopal.

The resignations were in compliance with a decision taken at an all-party meeting presided by the TN Chief Minister here on Tuesday asked the Centre to act to stop military offensive in Sri Lanka failing which all MPs from the state would quit within a fortnight.

There are in all 16 Lok Sabha MPs but suspended DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran and Indian Union Muslim League MP Khader Mohideen, who had fought the election on DMK symbol, did not come to the party headquarters to submit their resignations.

Citing media reports of India supplying arms to Sri Lanka, a resolution adopted at Tuesday’s all-party meeting presided by Karunanidhi had asked the Centre to stop it immediately.

India should take all steps to put an end to the ongoing ethnic strife in the island nation and ensure peace in “Eelam”, the resolution had said.

The all-party meeting was attended by leaders of DMK, Congress, PMK and Left parties which have 35 members in Lok Sabha besides two MDMK rebels. MDMK has two members in Lok Sabha.

Main opposition AIADMK, its ally MDMK, BJP and DMDK floated by actor-turned-politician Vijaykant had boycotted the meeting.