Chennai: PMK leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss’s polemic against M.K. Stalin has not tickled many let alone ruffling feathers in the DMK, which on Tuesday considered it unworthy of a senior party leader’s reaction.The DMK got a less known leader of one of its frontal organisations to rebuke Dr Ramadoss junior. It chose another Vanniyar and former Dharmapuri MP Tamiraiselvan, also the joint secretary of its Rules and Regulation Committee, to snub the “MCI scam fame” Anbumani who ‘volunteered’ and levelled a volley of charges against Stalin following the latter’s broadside against the AIADMK regime.

Anna Arivalayam (DMK headquarters) sources confirmed that the high command had deliberately picked a less known leader. “Usually thalaivar or thalapathi will have Duraimurugan (also Veerapandi S. Arumugam till his death) to counter Dr Ramadoss senior. But there was a specific instruction to be indifferent and not give so much thought to Anbumani’s statement yesterday,” a party senior privy to the development told Deccan Chronicle.

“Anbumani’s statement is a mere attention-drawing exercise borne out of sheer desperation,” the leader reasoned, questioning the timing of the statement, which comes close on the heels of DMDK leader Vijayakanth’s Gopalapuram visit.“The meeting has rattled them. They (PMK) hope to consolidate Vanniyar votes in a multi-cornered contest in 2016 Assembly poll. In the event of the DMDK and DMK coming together, PMK will be the biggest loser because they will reduce to a distant third or even worse and hence the unnecessary knee jerk reaction,” reasoned a DMK district secretary from the northern district.

The PMK’s CM candidate has to eat the humble pie as R. Thamaraiselvan, not surprisingly, referred to the “Indore medical college approval scam” and wondered what locus standi Anbumani has to preach the values of probity in public life while he is tirelessly walking down the corridors of a Delhi court to have his name cleared. Recalling how Anbumani had sneaked into a city hotel and sought Vijayakanth’s support ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the DMK advised the PMK leader to end his “Goebbelesian campaign” targeting Vanniyars and pull a leaf out of Stalin’s book on serving the people.