PM assures PMK on resolving ethnic crisis

new delhi: prime minister atal bihari vajpayee on monday assured pmk that he would advise his lankan counterpart ranil wikremeshinghe to resolve the ethnic crisis in sri lanka. prime minister's assurance came when a six member delegation led by pmk president ramdoss met vajpayee this morning to greet him on the eve of his 77nd birthday on tuesday. "vajpayee told us that he would be meeting sri lankan prime minister ranil wikremeshinghe and tell him that this was an opportune time to resolve the sri lankan ethnic problem", romdass said.five party mps--punnuswami, a k murty, p d elangovan, n t shanmugham and m durai--were part of the delegation which met vajpayee. the pmk leader, who has extended "unflinching" support to vajpayee government and its resolve to fighta terrorism, said the prime minister also evinced keen interests in local political developments in the state. asked if pmk sought prime minister vajpayee's intervention in resolving sri lankan ethnic crisis, ramdoss said "no". the pmk leader, who contested assembly elections jointly with aiadmk in tamil nadu and later walked out of the alliance, charged that jayalalithaa after securing their support for victory ws now attempting to destroy opposition parties one after an other. he said pmk the first party which walked out of alliance on the issue of candidature of andipatti assembly byelection which was followed by her other allies congress, cpm, cpi and recently tmc.