Premalatha hits back at Duraimurugan, media

Addressing newspersons at the party head office in Koyambedu, Premalatha said, “Duraimurugan is ageing and has the habit of sleeping a lot. I think he made the comments on the DMDK when he was in the middle of his sleep.”

Her statement came after Duraimurugan made a public statement about a section of DMDK district secretaries meeting him on the same day when their leadership held alliance talks with the BJP and the AIADMK.

The DMDK was widely criticised for being opportunistic and Duraimurugan’s comments were widely seen as a retaliation for Premalatha’s statements in the aftermath of Stalin meeting Vijayakant a few days back.

When quizzed on her party holding talks simultaneously with both the major Dravidian parties for an alliance, Premalatha, who became visibly tense, did not respond to the questions and instead passed inappropriate comments about media.

When asked whether the DMDK had any ideology as it was holding talks simultaneously with both the alliances, Premalatha charged back at the reporters. “Do you know anything about our party ideology. We were the first party to set the trend of contesting alone in elections back in 2006.”

She also took a surprise dig at the AIADMK by saying, “Since it is a Parliamentary election we need MPs to speak for the State’s rights. In 2014, the AIADMK contested alone and got 37 MPs. However, they were of no use as they could not bring any good scheme to Tamil Nadu.”

The conduct of Premalatha in the presser was condemned by journalists across the State. Bharathi Tamizhan, joint secretary, Chennai Press Club, criticised her conduct and demanded all politicians treat journalists with dignity. Midhar, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Journalists Protection Welfare Association, and the Theni Press Club also condemned Premalatha for her ‘disrespectful’ behaviour.

On the political side, CPM State secretary K Balakrishnan termed her behaviour as ‘politically indecent’.