Deputy Leader of Opposition and DMDK Presidium Chairman, Panruti S Ramachandran, on Tuesday announced his retirement from active politics, and blamed the “current style of leadership” for the party completely losing the plot, adding that under the present dispensation it can never be the alternative force in Tamil Nadu politics.
In an interview with Express after his dramatic move of taking political sanyas by submitting his resignation as MLA to Speaker
P Dhanapal in the afternoon citing health reasons, Ramachandran acknowledged that the perception of the people about the DMDK, which he assiduously helped build, has plummeted in the last two years. “The leadership (DMDK) thought that the party could grow only by criticising the Chief Minister. I could not go with that perception,” he said in a stinging revelation. He said he had conveyed to the “leadership” that such a strategy will only benefit the DMK and will not help the DMDK grow.