New Delhi, Sept 30: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will consult Law Minister Arun Jaitley on the issue of non-conventional energy minister M Kannappan, whose sacking has been demanded by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for allegedly supporting LTTE. A PMO spokesman said this after a delegation of MDMK leaders, including its ministers Gingee Ramachandran and Kannappan, met Vajpayee and explained the position in the wake of Jayalalithaa threatening to invoke Pota provisions against Kannappan.

"The Prime Minister listened to us and he is satisfied", Kannappan told reporters after a 45-minute meeting with Vajpayee at his race course residence here. A PMO spokesman said that the Prime Minister gave a patient hearing to the delegation and said that he would talk to Law Minister in this regard.

Kannappan said that he gave a letter to Prime Minister explaining the speech that he had made in Chennai on September 16 on the basis of which the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had wrote to Prime Minister to arrest him under Pota.

The minister said that while releasing a book on that day he had only spoke about his leader Vaiko's arrest under Pota provisions for more than one year for supporting Sri Lankan Tamils and the moral support for LTTE for championing the cause of Tamils in the island nation. Kannappan said that his party favoured only moral support and no other support to LTTE and opposed to any other kind of support to organisations involved in anti-national activities including LTTE.

The other members of the delegation are MDMK presidium chairman L Ganesan and party MP C Krishnan.


Bureau Report