Why did Krishna call up Ramadoss?

Secondly, Ramadoss has all along been supporting grant of general amnesty to Veerappan. Thirdly, there is a feeling that the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA), which appears to have become part of the Veerappan gang, may be amenable to Ramadoss.

Though he is a staunch supporter of the LTTE and the idea of “separate Eelam”, there is no concrete evidence to show PMK’s links with TNLA. A faction of the TNLA led by Elavarasan once maintained ties with a Vanniyuar leader close to Ramadoss, but they have since fallen out.

The PMK recently held a training camp for the party platform speakers on the question of “self-determination”. A draft circulated among the participants strongly advocated Tamil nationalism.

However, Ramadoss denied his party’s role in preparing the background paper for the conference. The organiser of the camp, Vadivel Ravanan, was expelled from the party. There is hence no material to corraborate links between PMK and TNLA.

There is another theory that the area around the forest where Veerappan is hiding is, by and large, a Vanniyar belt. But this has been found not to be wholly true.

Meanwhile, talking to mediapersons after holding a meeting with the leaders of all political parties, Krishna said that besides talking to Ramadoss and PMK President Maniyan, he had appealed to all those leaders who could wheel influence on Veerappan to release the hostages unconditionally.

Stating that Karnataka Government was in constant touch with the Tamil Nadu Government which in turn was in constant touch with emissary R R Gopal, Krishna maintained that, as per official information, Gopal and Veerappan were holding talks in a cordial atmosphere which, according to him (Krishna), had kindled hopes of Rajkumar’s release at the earliest.

The Chief Minister said Rajkumar was keeping good health and the government was optimistic that “our efforts to secure the release of hostages will materialise”. He also hoped that a final result was expected by Tuesday midnight.

When asked about any contingency plan as the stalemate had continued for nearly 10 days, the Chief Minister said, “We don’t think it is necessary as we are hopeful that the negotiations between Gopal and Veerappan are being held in cordial atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, he said that leaders of various political parties have whole-heartedly supported all the initiatives taken by the state government for securing the release of hostages and have assured their continued support to the government in this regard.

When asked about the possibility of any fresh demands from Veerappan, the Chief Minister said, “I am concerned about the demands confined to Karnataka government”.

Earlier in the day, Home Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge said that the emissary Gopal was likely to return to Chennai by this evening with a message.