Nanjil quits, says No Dravida tag in AMMK

Announcing this at Kanniyakumari, Sampath said he would quit active politics altogether and spend the rest of his days in delivering speeches on Tamil literature. Sampath, a fiery orator, said he was shocked by the omission of the word ‘Dravida’ and added that Dinakaran could have taken the decision to compromise with Sangh Parivar later. 

However, Dinakaran, who spoke to reporters here denied that he had dropped the word ‘Dravida’ deliberately and said, “We have submitted three names to the Delhi High Court and two of them contained the word ‘Dravida’ and one had the word ‘Dravidar Kazhagam.’ But, the counsel of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was arguing against granting a party name for us, told the court that all the three names had already been registered. A name without ‘Dravida’ was chosen to avoid legal hurdles, since it will lead to a prolonged court case and delay in party formation.”

He also said that the AMMK is only an interim arrangement till we retrieved the AIADMK. Dinakaran further said former chief minister J Jayalalithaa symbolised all the Dravidian leaders Periyar, Anna and MGR. Even Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani had recognised Jayalalithaa as a Dravidian leader and gave her the title ‘Samooga Needhi Kaatha Veeranganai’. “Sampath had spoken as if there is no link between Dravidian ideology and Jayalalithaa. He had in fact insulted Jayalalithaa,” Dinakaran charged and expressed regrets over Sampath’s decision. 

Dinakaran further said, “If I started a party on my own without obtaining court’s permission, I will lose the right to remain in the AIADMK and fight the legal battle to retrieve the party. The 18 disqualified MLAs and the general secretary (VK Sasikala) too cannot be in the party if I did not take court’s permission for a party’s name”. 

Replying to a question on Leader of Opposition MK Stalin’s comments on Dravida Nadu concept, Dinakaran said, “Both Kerala and Karnataka are refusing to share water with Tamil Nadu. The concept of Dravidian politics remains only in Tamil Nadu and not in other southern states. Dravida concept is not applicable now and we can work only for Tamil Nadu”.