After DMK MLA's praise for PM Modi, party suspends him

The DMK on Wednesday suspended its MLA Ku Ka Selvam, who is apparently leaning towards the BJP, and relieved himof party posts, a day after he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi andmet saffron party chief J P Nadda.

The DMK on Wednesday suspended its MLA Ku Ka Selvam, who is apparently leaning towards the BJP, and relieved himof party posts, a day after he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi andmet saffron party chief J P Nadda. The Dravidian party also sent the legislator a show cause notice, asking him why he should not be expelled from the primary membership of the party.

Reacting to his suspension, the MLA, after visiting the BJP State headquarters 'Kamalalayam,' told reporters here that he would notworry even if the party expelled him. He also questioned the party leadership for allegedly not holding pollsto fill posts like that of district secretaries.

"They have suspended me. I am not worried even if they expel me.I will continue to work for the people," Selvam said. Expressing his resentment openly, he said he hadworked for the DMK for over two decades and still was not considered for the west district secretary position in the city and demanded "intra party elections".

"It was the father, then the son and now the grandson... in the place of successor politics, it is now becoming family politics," he said without explicitly naming the DMK.

Apparently, the trio he indicated are late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, his son and incumbent chief M K Stalin and his son Udhayanidhi Stalin, the party's youth wing secretary. Recently, DMK MLA J Anbazhagan, who was the west the district secretary here passed away due to COVID-19.

"Those who are above 55, please don't be in the party (DMK)...then you will have to face the situation which I faced," the disgruntled legislator said. Many of his supporters would join the BJP, he said and alsoappealed to people to sign up with the saffron party.

However, he maintained that he "is in the DMK and still wantedStalin to condemn those who denigrated Kanda Sashti Kavacham" hymn in praise of Lord Muruga. On his visit to the BJP office, he paid obeisance to a portrait of Lord Ram, decked up on the occasion of the foundation stone laying ceremony in Ayodhya.

DMK chief M K Stalin, in a party release said, "DMK headquarters office secretary and executive committee member Ku Ka Selvam is relieved from the posts effective today." The party president said Selvam was suspended for violating party discipline and bringing disrepute and his explanation has been sought. During his visit to Delhi On Tuesday, Selvam, representing the Thousand Lights constituency here, praised Modi for good governance and extended his best wishes to him for efforts to construct the Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Amid speculation that he was set to join the saffron party, Selvam had denied it and maintained he was in the national capital to meet Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to seek projects for his constituency. He said he utilised the opportunity to meet Nadda and urged him to develop Rameswaram and the places associated with Lord Ram, on a par with Ayodhya.

The MLA had also wanted Stalin to snap ties with the Congress..