Seat-sharing hitch no problem: PMK

CHENNAI, AUG 2: The 8220;hitch8221; that has cropped up regarding seat-sharing in the DMK-led Front in Tamil Nadu would be easily set right by DMK president and Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi, PMK founder S. Ramadoss said today. Addressing mediapersons after the party8217;s general council meet, he said he did not anticipate any breach in the NDA in the state due to the hitch in seat-sharing talks. Dr Ramadoss termed as 8220;speculative8221; reports that PMK wanted to be the 8220;second largest party8221; in the Front.Pointing out that PMK wouldn8217;t create problems, he said. 8220;It has never been the habit of the PMK to ask for more seats and it will not do so now.8221;

He, however, declined to reveal the number of seats demanded by the PMK.Asked to react on Karunanidhi inviting applications from DMK ticket aspirants to contest all the 40 seats, he said this was the normal screening practice. Even the PMK would do so, he added. Attacking the Congress-led front, he said the combine did not project AICC president Sonia Gandhi as theprime ministerial candidate because it was not confident of her popularity.

He said the BJP had secured more seats than the Congress in the 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections. The NDA was confident of forming the next government at the Centre, he added.

Reacting to AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalitha8217;s criticism of Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee on the Telecom policy, Dr Ramadoss recalled that she had lauded Vajpayee till a month before her party withdrew support to the BJP-led Government.

On the AIADMK manifesto, he said it had no no reference to the common civil code in an attempt to 8220;appease8221; the minorities. On the other hand, the AIADMK manifesto for the 1998 elections had favoured such a code, he pointed out.

On the AIADMK8217;s decision to field former Supreme Court judge, Justice V. Ramaswami against whom an impeachment motion was moved in the Lok Sabha, he said the candidate would be impeached by the electorate.

He was also critical of the Left parties for their 8220;opportunistic stand8221; ofsupporting the Congress in Tamil Nadu and opposing it in Kerala.