By IANS
Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Tuesday flayed the newly formed United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), saying that AIADMK chief Jayalalitha's reference to UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil "as a joke on the nation" was in bad taste.
"While a group of people do possess the right to call themselves a front and meet, and even put up a candidate, but deriding the nomination of an erudite person to the highest office of the land doesn't befit their stature," Karunanidhi said.
Karunanidhi, also the DMK patriarch, listed the various posts held by Patil in her political career and the names of organisations founded by her.
Without directly referring to the leaders of the eight parties who formed the UNPA, he said, "the only taste they seem to have had has stemmed from the meal served to them," in an obvious reference to the announcement of the formation of UNPA after lunch at Jayalalitha's Poes Garden residence.
Recalling that Patil had been an MLA for many years, a cabinet minister in Maharashtra and the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Karunanidhi pointed out that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee set up a plethora of educational institutions for women, tribal children and backward classes and a vocational training institute for the blind apart, from having practised as a lawyer.