Captain sends letter seeking to meet CM
DMDK chief Vijayakanth has sought an appointment with chief minister Jayalalithaa ‘to discuss the problems in (his) constituency’.
This is seen as an attempt to counter alleged moves by the ruling party to trigger desertions in his camp and strip him of the status of the Leader of Opposition.
This may be Captain’s way of avenging the embarrassment caused by his four MLAs calling on chief minister Jayalalithaa under the pretext of discussing the problems in their constituencies.
J. Chandrakumar, the party’s whip in the Assembly who is his most trusted lieutenant, was chosen to fire the first salvo.
He delivered the letter to speaker V. Dhanapal on Monday asking him to arrange a meeting with the chief minister.
Captain would bring along four of his legislators — Senthilkumaran, Bala Arulselvan, Anagai Murugesan and Ms Shanthi — for the important discussion with the CM, the letter said.
“Speaker asked me why we chose to give the letter to him (instead of handing over the request at the CM’s office). I told him we are MLAs and so look up to him for help and protection. He said nothing, just took the letter,” Chandrakumar told Deccan Chronicle.
Though he refused to elaborate on the letter strategy, other DMDK seniors interpreted the move as an attempt to trivialise the meetings with the CM that the four ‘rebels’ with their ‘constituency-concerns’ had.
Some others thought Captain was trying to pre-empt any excitement from more such ‘rebels’ calling on Jayalalithaa, even as strong rumours did the rounds in Fort St. George that two or three DMDK legislators are likely to meet the CM on Tuesday.
Interestingly, Vijayakanth has decided to get four of his MLAs each day to present letters to the Speaker seeking CM’s appointment.
“We have been told to prepare a list of 15-20 problems in our constituencies”, a DMDK senior told DC. “My own hunch is that the CM will meet us as otherwise, it would be apparent that the four rebels got special treatment”.
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