Stalin asks rebel DMK councillors to resign from posts alloted to alliance parties
Cross-voting and rebellion overshadowed the indirect elections to urban local body councils on Friday as rebel DMK candidates defeated their party colleagues and alliance candidates in many municipalities and town panchayats across the state.
VCK, Congress and CPM among the Secular Progressive Alliance parties turned out to be the casualties of the DMK rebel candidates’ indiscipline after the latter defeated their official candidates in a couple of municipalities/town panchayats each allotted to them.
The poll rebellion briefly strained the bonhomie in the alliance on Friday noon with leaders like VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan and state CPM Secretary K Balakrishnan publicly voicing their displeasure and seeking a remedy from the DMK leadership. Assuaging them around 6 pm, Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed regret at the party workers’ indiscipline and cautioned the rebels to resign their posts and meet him soon.
“I express my regret to the leaders of the Secular Progressive Alliance. I am quite firm that the brotherhood feeling which won the goodwill of the people should never be shattered,” Stalin said in a statement issued after a discussion with his senior party colleague Duraimurugan.