O Panneerselvam attempting to create rift, says Stalin

Not content with a mere rebuttal to the finance minister’s statement, Stalin on Saturday charged Panneerselvam with levelling “cheap accusations” on the seating row, which was unbecoming of his stature, to hide problems in the party and his own family. 

He was responding to OPS Friday’s statement that Stalin had snatched away the LoP post from his father M Karunanidhi and to cover up the coup he had deliberately left out the nonagenarian’s name in an earlier list he had submitted to the Speaker for making seating arrangements. 

Stalin emphastically said, “His (Karunanidhi) name was not included in the first list submitted only because we decided to make a separate representation to the Speaker on providing seating arrangements for thalaivar . I showed the letter and obtained his (Karunanidhi’s) consent before our whip Chakrapani made the representation to the Speaker and no other reason like the one Panneerselvam has alleged could be ascribed to it.”

On LoP post, he said: “The post was given to me only by the party president. In fact, Kalaignar made me the legislature party leader even in the previous Assembly despite him being a legislator. Even in the previous DMK regime, Kalaignar gave me the opportunity to reply to the Governor’s address,” advising the finance minister not to misconstrue the crisis within his own family and party as that of the DMK’s, and instead act with generosity worthy of a party that had captured power consecutively. 

The DMK treasurer said the finance minister has talked about “imaginary squabbles in the DMK” and attempted to create a rift in the DMK ranks, to cover up his alleged nexus with Karur Anbunathan and Natham Viswanathan. 

Curiously, OPS statement can’t be dismissed as a figment of imagination considering that there have been audible murmurs about Karunanidhi deliberately skipping the June 15 DMK Legislature Party meet.