Coimbatore:
Ending weeks of intense speculation over ties with the Congress, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today said that his party will continue to stay in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
"Status quo will be maintained with regard to the alliance with the Congress," said Karunanidhi.
The DMK boss also made it clear that no replacements would be sent to the Union Cabinet after party leaders Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja quit as ministers in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.
The announcement came after the end of the two-day executive committee meeting of the DMK at Coimbatore.
The Congress and the DMK have been together for seven years, but share a strained relationship since the 2G scam led to DMK patriarch Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and party leader A Raja being arrested and sent to jail. Karunanidhi's grand-nephew, Dayanidhi Maran, was also forced to quit the Union Cabinet over his alleged role in the scam.
Party sources say the DMK cannot afford to snap ties with the Congress with Kanimozhi in jail and the Jayalalithaa government slapping land grab cases against DMK leaders.
Mounting pressure on the Centre, the DMK also reiterated bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal.
The General Council also said Kanimozhi had been kept in jail for long which it said was against the 'principle of natural justice'.
Karunanidhi has repeatedly made his displeasure known over the continued imprisonment of his daughter and had even blamed the Centre for her plight.
The CBI's act of "scuttling Kanimozhi coming out on bail is motivated and biased," the resolution said pointing out that the court before which the case was pending had itself asked the investigating agency whether it was its intention that the accused should remain in jail.
In a bid to quell the succession battle between Karunanidhi's sons M K Alagiri and M K Stalin, the meet reposed faith in the leadership of the 87-year-old DMK chief.
"The Dravidian movement continues to be led by Karunanidhi," the resolution said.
Supporters of Stalin had yesterday vociferously pitched for a greater role for their leader which was resented by Alagiri's followers.
The issue was ultimately laid to rest by an upset Karunanidhi himself who reportedly asked the Executive meeting whether they wanted him to step down.
Yesterday, as the DMK leaders discussed the party's rout in the Assembly polls, party chief M Karunanidhi put up a brave face and told his partymen that "all of us are equally to blame" (for the poll debacle). He also asserted that the DMK was a fortress that had withstood even the Emergency.
"This setback is not worse than Emergency," Karunanidhi, whose government was dismissed and his son Stalin put in prison during that period, had said.
The DMK chief, however, sounded confident that the party would win the next elections.
(
With PTI Inputs)