DMK’s working president M.K. Stalin, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly, has said he had been misquoted in the press on the ‘Dravida Naadu’ issue. He said that he didn’t support the ‘Dravida Naadu’ initiative proposed by a few South Indian politicians.

Stalin spoke to newsmen a couple of days back after supervising the arrangements being made in Erode where the DMK’s regional conference is to get underway.  While replying to a specific query on ‘Dravida Naadu’ issue and the many requests going around for merging the South Indian States to form a single entity, Stalin responded by stating that he would support it if there was a chance of it becoming a reality.

Stalin’s comments were particularly surprising to political observers as the DMK had long back abandoned the ‘separate’ Tamil Nadu slogan after the passing away of the party’s founder Annathurai. Coming as it does in the aftermath of the Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) quitting the BJP-led NDA at the Centre, it only made observers feel that the DMK might just be trying to revive its old ‘separate’ Tamil Nadu demand.

Setting things right while speaking to newsmen at ‘Anna Arivalayam’, the party’s headquarters in Chennai, Stalin said “Annathurai had long back abandoned the demand for a separate State. However, effort is being made now by misquoting my statement to show as if the DMK is reviving the demand again.  It’s a wrong campaign indulged in by vested interests!”