Chennai: The Opposition DMK today dismissed its suspended MLA Ku Ka Selvam from the primary membership of the party for acting in a manner that brought disrepute to the party and for violating the party discipline.
DMK president M K Stalin, in a statement here said, Selvam was permanently dismissed from the party as the reply given by the MLA, who was elected from Thousand Lights constituency, to the show cause notice was not acceptable.
“Since Selvam’s reply to the show cause notice is not acceptable, he is permanently dismissed and relieved from all party posts”, Stalin, who is also the leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, said.
The dismissal of Selvam, a prominent face in the DMK, comes a day after another DMK senior and former Deputy Speaker V P Duraisamy, who joined the BJP two months back, said it would be a direct fight between the BJP and the DMK in the next Assembly elections due in April-May next year.
Duraisamy said till now it was said that it would be a fight between DMK and the ruling AIADMK in the elections.
However, after Selvam ‘joined’ the BJP (though the DMK MLA has not officially announced it), it will now be a direct fight between the BJP and the DMK.
Now that he was officially dismissed from the DMK, decks were cleared for his formal entry into the saffron party.
Selvam was on 5 August suspended from the DMK, which had also issued a show cause notice as to why he should not expelled from the primary membership, a day after he met senior BJP leaders Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP National President J P Nadda in New Delhi.
After meeting Nadda, the DMK MLA also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while urging Stalin to strongly condemn Tamil YouTube channel Karuppar Kottam for denigrating Lord Muruga and snap all ties with the Congress as its leader Rahul Gandhi was very critical of Modi’s good governance.
Soon after his suspension, he attended a special puja at the BJP headquarters in the city to mark the foundation stone laying ceremony for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya by Modi.
Though Selvam was suspended from the DMK, he was yet to join the BJP formally, but he was given a rousing reception at the airport by the BJP workers on his arrival from New Delhi after meeting Goyal and Nadda.
Taking potshots at the DMK and in a veiled attack on DMK youth wing leader and Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi, he said hereditary politics has now become family politics in DMK and appealed to all those above 55 years of age in the DMK to quit the party and join the BJP as they would also face the same fate faced by him.
Selvam revolted after he was denied the post of DMK Chennai West district secretary held by deceased MLA J Anbazhagan, which was given to youth wing member Chitrarasu apparently at the instance of Udhayanidhi.
In his reply to the show cause notice, Selvam asked the party to withdraw his suspension, stating that the decision was taken without hearing his side, and that it was not wrong to meet other political party leaders.
He said the decision of suspension is one-sided and against the principles of natural justice. But his explanation was rejected and he has now been dismissed from the DMK.