Chennai, December 11 – In a major jolt to the actor – turned – politican Vijayakanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam (DMD) its presidium chairman and deputy leader in the state assembly Panruti Ramachandran on Tuesday resigned from the assembly and also from all the posts in the party. He also announced that he is quitting active politcs and cited health reasons for the decision.
He is 76. Ramachandran is considered as the brain behind Vijayakanth’s political party and was instrumental in the DMDK forgin an alliance with the AIADMK in the last assembly election in May 2011. The assembly speaker has promptly accepted Ramachandran’s resignation within hours afer receiving the same. Ramachandran represented Alandur, a suburban constituency of Chennai.
Observers say that Ramachandran was facing a tough time with Vijayakanth for quite some time. The growing influence of Vijayakanth’s wife and her brother in the party matters has indeed created an atmosphere of suffocation for the senior politician over the months. Ramachandran said he advised Vijayakanth not to field candidates in the recently held Delhi assembly elections but still the actor went ahead with it and received a massive defeat.
“The major decisions in the party are taken by Vijayakanth and his family members on many occasions” said Ramachandran in a brief interaction with media personnel. In his letter to Vijayakanth, Ramachandran thanked him for giving him an opportunity to serve the party and the people.
Ramachandran is an old horse in the state’s politics. A close associate of the late M.G. Ramachandran, he played a major role in shaping the Indo – Srilankan accord between Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President Jayawardane in July 1987. He was sent to the United Nations by the Indian Govt to speak on the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils. A qualifed Engineer Ramachandran belong to the most backward Vanniyar community and considered as a shrewd strategist in the TN’s politics.
“Ramachandran exit is a major jolt to the already sruggling DMDK. So far 7 of the DMDK’s MLAs have shifted their loyalties to Jayalalithaa. This latest one will further demoralise the cadres. Continuing in DMDK will be a difficult one for any politician with an iotal of self respect, because of the nasceating atmospher being generated there by the brazen family politics practised by Vijayakanth” says R.Kathiresan, a senior journalist who was close with Vijayakanth in the early days of DMDK.
–Indiatoday
