Ideology above all else, DMK refuses to back NDA's 'Tamil' V-P nominee

EVEN as the BJP's state unit and AIADMK play the 'Tamil' card in a bid to pressure the DMK into extending its support for the NDA's vice-presidential candidate C P Radhakrishnan, DMK leaders said the party has no intention of backing him since ideology is "above all else".

- K EZHILARASAN & KUMARESAN S @Chennai

"We will give preference only to ideology. We cannot support Radhakrishnan merely on the grounds that he is Tamil. We have to look at what his ideologies are," DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan told TNIE.

"BJP has not done anything for Tamil or Tamil Nadu. The BJP-led union government has not approved Keezhadi excavation reports, has not released due funds to the state, and also is averse to the development of TN," he added.

Elangovan also recalled DMK's campaigns against Radhakrishnan during the Lok Sabha elections.

"Moreover, we all know how the BJP government treated the former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar. We do not even know his whereabouts now," he said.

Meanwhile, names of DMK's five-term Rajya Sabha member Tiruchi Siva and former ISRO scientist Mylswamy Annadurai have been doing the rounds as the INDIA bloc's choice for V-P candidate.