Days after Vaiko Slams Nehru over Kashmir Plebiscite, TN Congress Chief Calls Him Political Opportunist

Chennai: Fissures have started appearing in the opposition camp in Tamil Nadu with the state Congress chief and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) president trading barbs at each other over the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

Two days after MDMK chief and Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko blamed the Congress for not conducting a plebiscite in Kashmir, Congress state president KS Azhagiri called him a political opportunist.

“Vaiko became an MP only with the support of Congress MLAs. In less than 15 days since he became an MP, he is attacking the Congress. He is not grateful to our party for nominating him as a Rajya Sabha member. He should stop lashing out at our party,” said senior Congress leader EVKS Elangovan. However, Vaiko said he won”t take back his statements against the Congress.

“I would like to clarify one thing. The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president said I became an RS member only with the party’s support. That is factually incorrect. He said this because he is angry. The DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) has 108 MLAs. To become an RS member, one needs the support of just 34 MLAs. The DMK can itself nominated three MPs. The DMK nominated me. Its chief Stalin and MLAs proposed my name and it is not the Congress that proposed my name. I have never and will never become an MP with the help of the Congress. So, Azhagiri should not make such statements in the future,” said Vaiko.

Senior leaders from the DMK, which leads the opposition camp in the state, did not want to comment on the issue.

On Monday, Vaiko, in his speech in the Rajya Sabha, said, “Jawaharlal Nehru promised to hold a plebiscite. A fraud was committed by the Congress party. I have all the respect for Nehru, but the plebiscite promise was not kept… Now I tell you... all these years, you killed democracy — the Congress party… every time. Sheikh Abdullah had told me “Don’t forget there is no place in the dictionary of Indian political history either for friendship or for gratitude in Congress party. You have not only bifurcated but the nomenclature itself has been changed. At a time when Puducherry is claiming statehood, you are equating it with the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.”