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NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 9:

        All eyes are now focussed on the general council meeting of the MDMK convened by the party general secretary Vaiko tomorrow at Vijaya Shree Mahal, Anna Nagar, following a faction feud within the party.

        The issue has taken a bad turn with the dissident faction led by Gingee S Ramachandran and L Ganesan resolving to work in tandem with the DMK following its chief M Karunanidhi's open invitation to them yesterday.

        Vaiko has reportedly convened the general council to take a 'decision' on rebel leaders Ganesan and Ramachandran.

        Meanwhile, the Madras High Court today declined to order a stay on the general council meeting convened by Vaiko. A petition was filed by one Saidai Ravi urging the court to stay the meeting. The court also sent notices to Ganesan and Ginjee Ramachandran in this regard and posted the case for further hearing after Pongal holidays.

        Meanwhile, a total of 1,329 general council members of the MDMK filed separate petitions in the Madras High Court on Monday to implead themselves as party to the proceedings relating to the removal of two senior leaders from the party and the subsequent developments.

        In a release here on Monday, G Devadoss, party's legal wing secretary, said the petitioners included two deputy general secretaries and 35 district secretaries.

        Already, several petitions, including a civil suit against the removal of L Ganesan and Gingee N Ramachandran from party posts, and Vaiko's petition seeking to restrain the two leaders from interfering with the control of the party headquarters, are pending before the court.

        It may be recalled that the dissidents convened a zonal meeting at Thanjavur Kandasarasu Kalyana Mandapam yesterday in which a total of 35 office-bearers from Thanjavur district, 28 from Thiruvarur and 16 from Nagapattinam took part.

        The resolutions passed in the meeting attended by Ramachandran and Ganesan included endorsing their decision to expel Vaiko from the post of the party's general secretary at an earlier meeting in Salem last month for his selfish acts which had ruined the party's reputation and hampered its prospects in the elections.

        It was decided unilaterally to work in coordination with the DMK after accepting their open invitation. Also, it was decided to conduct such meetings in every district in the State.

        Vaiko has stated that the meeting convened by him tomorrow would be the real one with 'real' members. He reiterated that the original general council members would participate in the meeting convened by him and added that the meetings conducted by the two rebel leaders were backed by the ruling DMK.

        He also said Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was taking all efforts to 'ruin' the meeting with the help of police and hooligans.

        Stating that the attempts made by Karunanidhi to erase the MDMK from the political arena had failed, Vaiko said the Chief Minister had involved in activities which could bring disgrace to his position.