DMK vs Congress in Tamilnadu, DMK cadre attack Congress leader

In a case of friends turning foe in Tamilnadu, DMK cadre targeted a Congress leader during Bharat bandh protest for stating that DMK President MK Stalin is disrespecting Congress. 

DMK chief Stalin last week announced that DMK will support the Bharath bandh call led by the Congress against the galloping petrol & diesel prices. But on the ground, this was not reflected as not a senior leader or even an MLA from DMK participated in the protest today.

Karate Thyagarajan, former Chennai deputy mayor & south Chennai district secretary of the Congress party, during a protest at Chepauk, expressed his concern that the state chief of the Congress party would regularly participate in all the DMK all-party meeting & protests. But the same was not reciprocated on Monday as the Dravidian party did not even send second-rung leaders to represent them at the protest called by Congress, instead sent a legal wing secretary to participate in the protest.

The comment provoking the DMK cadres who were gathered as they raised slogans against the Congress leader, which quickly turned violent. 

The crowd was placated only after the Congress leader assured them that what he expressed was his personal opinion and not that of his party. 

Perhaps this is the reason DMK chief worded his media statement carefully, saying DMK would support and not participate in the protests. 

AIADMK senior leader & Lok Sabha deputy speaker Thambidurai yesterday accused DMK of attempting to form an alliance with BJP and trying to topple the ADMK govt in the state. There were speculations about an alliance even before the elevation of MK Stalin as the party chief between DMK and BJP which was promptly snubbed by MK Stalin when he slammed BJP during his elevation speech.

A senior Congress spokesperson from the state unit told Republic TV that DMK doesn't want to give any publicity to the Congress protest and hence Stalin didn't participate or didn't send even a second set of leaders. The leader said that the DMK wants Congress to be a low-profile party and believe that with the participants of DMK, protest would turn bigger. 

However, there were many differences of opinion between leaders of DMK & Congress in various issues including the release of Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts.  This issue which broke out today had created buzz among the cadre of both the parties who are foot soldiers of any party.