R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, FEB 15
Alliance with the saffron party is the death-knell for the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the forthcoming assembly election, said former MLA and one of the founding members of AIADMK here on Monday.
Addressing reporters, octogenarian leader K Soundararajan said that out of the 12 founding members – K A Krishnasamy, S D Somasundaram, Munu Aadhi, Kuzha Chelliah, SR Radha, and others – he is the only alive.
Soundararajan said, “The present leadership of the party completely surrendered to the ruling saffron party at the centre to safeguard their interests and dancing to their music.”
“Aligning with BJP is against the very purpose of the party founded by late MGR and his mentor and former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai. The present high command of the party is drifted away from the Dravidian ideology by joining hands with the RSS-backed saffron party,” he added.
“If they continue the alliance with BJP, it will be the death-knell for AIADMK. The party will completely lose the faith of the people like the defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election,” Soundararajan said.
More than 50 former MLAs and senior leaders and few current MLAs and almost all the party members have the same sentiment, he added.
He also claimed that his signature at No. 7 in the AIADMK founding document along with MGR is still intact at the MGR’s House in T Nagar.
