Raja is targeted because he is Dalit: Karunanidhi

On a day Parliament was rocked by demands for A Raja's resignation, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday strongly backed him and said Opposition parties are levelling "malicious charges" just because he is a Dalit. "Raja is a Dalit.

That is why dominant forces are leveling malicious charges against him," he said when asked for his comments on the opposition demands for his resignation in the wake of allegations of scam in 2G Spectrum allocation.

The chief minister, however, refused to entertain more questions on the controversy. It was not clear whether the spectrum issue was discussed during the meeting he had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi separately.

DMK sources maintained that the issue did not come up during Karunanidhi's meeting with Sonia in the morning. Karunanidhi's comments come a day after he virtually ruled out opposition demands for Raja's resignation. DMK has been maintaining that Raja will not resign and that he is being targeted by vested interests.

Both houses of Parliament were rocked by demands by opposition parties like BJP and AIADMK demanding Raja's resignation. AIADMK has been demanding that Prime Minister sack Raja from cabinet.

During his meeting with Sonia in the morning, Karunanidhi demanded her that steps be taken to get the Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha at the earliest. The bill was passed by Rajya Sabha by a two-thirds majority on March 9 with the support of BJP and Left parties.

The DMK chief said: "I told Sonia Gandhi that steps should be taken to pass the Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha as soon as possible."