Karunanidhi charges Congress with adopting vengeful methods against it

Chennai: Opening a virulent attack probably for the first time against Congress after it snapped ties in last March, party chief M Karunanidhi accused it of failing to show gratitude to his party which lent crucial support to the Congress-led UPA.

Launching his party's election campaign from the city, which has three Lok Sabha segements, Karunanidhi lashed out at his "Congress friends" remarking, "They were more inclined to save their government but showed no gratitude," apparently pointing to the way the Sonia Gandhi party treated DMK while handling the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

Karunanidhi's anger stems from the turbulent time its leaders - his daughter Kanimozhi and former Telecom Minister A Raja - had to face in this matter and also the dent caused to the party.

The DMK patriarch has all along been maintaining that Raja and Kanimozhi are innocent and repeated his claim saying "all the zeros added to (the scam) are falling one by one",

indicating DMK leaders' innocence.

Apparently predicting doomsday for Congress in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, he said, "They don't know the meaning of gratitude. That's why today in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere Congress' situation is abysmally low."

"To lead a good life, you have to have gratitude. Congress never realised who gave them a helping hand in the past and gave so many troubles to DMK and its members and they are paying for it now," Karunanidhi, who vehemently rejected alliance offers by Congress for this year's polls, said.

However, extending an olive branch to Congress, he said, "If the Congress men regret and get back to their secular credentials - DMK will support them, not in terms of votes, but to change the evils that had gripped them, and is ready to fogive them."