Chennai

TheDMK said on Tuesday that it would support in Parliament the Opposition’s move seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, though it is not part of the INDIA bloc. DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan, speaking to reporters, said that whenever Opposition parties oppose the BJP on any issue, his party would also stand by them.

“Ideologically, we (Opposition) all stand together. We are not part of the INDIA bloc. That is different. But in Parliament, we will support whoever brings a removal motion against Gyanesh Kumar, because our leader (DMK chief M K Stalin) had issued a statement,” Elangovan said, answering a question on the status of the INDIA bloc and ties between the Congress and Samajwadi parties.

Stalin had issued a statement on September 23 demanding that CEC Gyanesh Kumar “must go” and saying that he had no right to continue in office. Elangovan said that such support in Parliament does not mean that the DMK is a constituent of the INDIA bloc and that the move to oppose the BJP is based on ideology.

“Samajwadi Party top leader Akhilesh Yadav was skipping the meeting like the DMK, and that was because of the Congress party, he said, adding that the grand old party chose TVK in Tamil Nadu “for the sake of two ministerial berths in the TVK government”, he added.

Further, the DMK leader said that the Congress party has said that it will continue with the TVK. “They are not in our (DMK) alliance. How can we support them? How can we go to the meeting called by them?” he asked. To another question, Elangovan said that the Congress, by aligning with the TVK and ditching the DMK, “committed a mistake.”

After the TVK, led by actor-turned-politician C Joseph Vijay, won 108 constituencies out of the 234 Assembly segments in the April Assembly polls, the Congress party joined hands with the TVK and became a part of the government, after a gap of nearly six decades in Tamil Nadu.