Chennai: Amid speculation that the M K Stalin-led DMK is moving closer to the BJP-led NDA, its parliamentary party leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi attended the customary tea party hosted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday after the House was adjourned sine die. Kanimozhi exchanged pleasantries with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Union ministers at the event, which was boycotted by several India bloc constituents, sources said.MPs Thamizhachi Thangapandian and Rani Srikumar were the other DMK MPs who attended the event. “The INDIA bloc decided to boycott the event. We are no longer part of the bloc. Our MPs attended to thank the Speaker, as is customary,” a senior DMK leader told TOI. Neither the Congress nor the Samajwadi Party attended Thursday’s event.A senior DMK leader dismissed suggestions that the party’s participation indicated a political realignment. “The presence of DMK MPs has nothing to do with NDA. It is the Congress camp that is spreading canards about a realignment,” the leader said. DMK sources said the party leadership was upset over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks during his Chennai visit, where the Congress leader reportedly described parties supporting the Union govt’s delimitation as “21st century Ettappans”, a reference to a historical figure associated with betrayal.DMK is also said to be “irritated” by the TVK-Congress alliance’s move to convene a meeting of MPs from various parties to discuss the implications of delimitation, which party leaders believe was intended to put the DMK on the defensive over the contentious issue. During Thursday’s event, Kanimozhi reminded Birla of the party’s request to revise the seating arrangement for its MPs in the Lok Sabha, sources said. Kanimozhi had written to the Speaker in May, seeking separate seating for DMK MPs following the end of the party’s alliance with the Congress. The request cited “changed political circumstances”.. . “The Speaker is expected to take a decision before the next session,” a DMK MP said.
