A few days after he met BJP State president L. Murugan, DMK leader V.P. Duraisamy was on Thursday removed from the post of deputy general secretary of the party.
“It is not shocking news to me. At this juncture, I only wish Andhiyur Selvaraj, Rajya Sabha MP, who has been appointed in my place, well. Of course he is not my enemy,” Mr. Duraisamy, who was the Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly between 2006 and 2011, told The Hindu. Both Mr. Duraisamy and Mr. Selvaraj belong to the Scheduled Castes. While Mr. Duraisamy had met Mr. Murugan on Monday last, the trigger for the action against him is believed to have been an interview he gave to The Hindu Tamil Thisai, in which he said that DMK president “M.K. Stalin is individually good but collectively bad”.
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Asked whether the party’s decision was shaped by his visit to the BJP office to meet its State president, Mr. Duraisamy said it had nothing to do with the incident.
“Of late, the leadership does not like me. A close associate of party president Mr. Stalin is giving false information about me and he [Stalin] is also believing it. He is misguiding the leader and he cannot come out of the web. But personally he is a good leader,” Mr. Duraisamy said.
He, however, made it clear that he would not be bothered if the high-command had decided to strip him of the post because of his visit to the BJP office. He had met Mr Murugan, as the latter was related to him.
“Community politics is everywhere in Tamil Nadu politics. A DMK MLA met an AIADMK minister who belongs to his community. Can anyone deny it? Anyway it is their party and what can I do,” Mr Duraisamy asked.
He said he did not have any plan to join the BJP now. “But you cannot predict anything in politics. We do not know what will happen tomorrow,” he said.
