Wont fill vacancies in cabinet, says MK

COIMBATORE: The DMK general council on Sunday decided not to nominate its MPs for the two Cabinet berths vacated by its representatives—A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran—both of whom had resigned under a cloud of corruption charges. “We will maintain the status quo. We won’t take any efforts to fill up the vacancies. They shall remain as vacancies. Our existing nominees in the Union Cabinet will continue and so will the alliance with the Congress,” DMK president M Karunanidhi told journalists.However, he did not elaborate why the party was reluctant to accept the offer of Cabinet berths made by both the Prime Minister and the Congress leadership.According to Karunanidhi, the relationship with the Congress high command in New Delhi was good. Some general council members had merely complained about the conduct of a few State Congress leaders alone.Meanwhile, a cross-section of party cadre, including second-rung leaders, were disappointed that contrary to their expectations the general council and executive committee meetings did not come out with any drastic decisions on the party’s leadership and succession issue and change in its organisational structure.Karunanidhi sought to downplay such expectations, claiming that the DMK was a party which did not take decisions on its leadership at such forums in haste. The general council and executive committee were convened as per the mandate of the party’s constitution.“Unlike in other parties, in the DMK, leaders are elected for a specified period of time,” he said. When a senior journalist persisted, Karunanidhi said, “You will be the next leader,” and broke into laughter.He denied that his elder son M K Alagiri had boycotted the afternoon session of the general council meet.Earlier, his younger son  M K Stalin, who is known to be aspiring for the top job, is believed to have told the general council that he had no such intentions.Asked about the PMK and KMK blaming the DMK for the defeat of the alliance led by it in the Assembly elections, Karunanidhi reacted saying “I have confessed that we are responsible for it.”