'Not appropriate to call on Sonia when Kanimozhi in prison'

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DMK president M Karunanidhi today said he did not call on Congress President Sonia Gandhi during his visit to Delhi as it was 'not appropriate' to meet her when his daughter Kanimozhi, arrested in connection with the 2G scam, was in prison.

"There was an opportunity. There was time to meet Sonia Gandhi (but) since my daughter Kanimozhi is in jail, it was not appropriate for me to meet Gandhi and I avoided meeting her," he told reporters here after chairing a DMK legislature meet.

He, however, added that senior Congress leaders, including Union Ministers P. Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad had called on him (at the hotel where he was staying). Azad, Congress in-charge of Tamil Nadu, had stated yesterday after meeting Karunanidhi that Kanimozhi's arrest would not impact ties between the two parties but insisted that the government would not interfere in the case.

He had also said Gandhi is concerned about Kanimozhi being in jail and he expressed sympathies with DMK over the issue. Karunanidhi met Kanimozhi at Tihar Jail in Delhi on May 23, spending nearly an hour with her.

Karunanidhi said Kanimozhi was prepared to face the present situation with 'grit and determination' and both of them were confident that justice would prevail.

On the AIADMK government's decision to shelve his pet initiative of reviving the Legislative Council, he said it was an 'expected' one. To a question on the reported remark by former LTTE arms procurer Padmanathan that DMK ideology had influenced the outfit to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Karunanidhi said he didn't know who he was or what he had said.