Chennai/New Delhi, Saturday 18 October 2008: The battle for posturing over the Sri Lankan Tamil issue is heating up in Tamil Nadu.

All the 14 Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) Members of Parliament including seven Union Ministers submitted their symbolic resignation to DMK chief M Karunanidhi in Chennai on Friday.

The resignation letters were post-dated to October 29 when the fortnight’s deadline given by the DMK MPs to the Centre to halt Sri Lankan troops’ offensive against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) expires.

The resignations are an attempt to make the Central Government put pressure on Sri Lanka to stop it’s military offensive into Tamil areas.

It’s not our intention to pull out of the UPA. We did not pass the resolution with that intention. We are not doing anything to help or save the LTTE. We only want to help the orphaned Tamils, Karunanidhi said.

But now Karunanidhi’s rival and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief J Jayalalithaa now has dared him to resign form the chief ministership of Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalithaa has been calling the resignations a farce and is daring Karunanidhi to let his Members of Legislative Assembly resign if he is serious about taking up the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils.

If Karunanidhi really cares about the Tamils he should ask his MLAs to resign. Will he resign as chief minister? Will he have the guts to dissolve the state government, she asked.

The battle has high stakes in Tamil Nadu where all Dravidian parties and even the Congress have sought Central Government’s intervention to help Tamils in Sri Lanka.

So far the Government has expressed concern with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner CR Jayasinghe but has ruled out military intervention.

There’s all ready speculation that the DMK patriarch may like to the use the Sri Lankan Tamil issue to emerge as a martyr for the Tamil cause.

The question now is will he go so far as to actually to turn his threat into a reality at a time when the survival of his state government depends on Congress support.

(Agency)