Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday gave a clean chit to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on the Jain Commission report, which probed the assassination of her husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
More than six years ago her party had pulled down the United Front government over the issue of the DMK's alleged links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, accused of assassinating the former PM.
After the first-ever visit by a Congress president to the DMK office in Chennai, Gandhi said, "The interim report [of the commission] had made some adverse comments on some [DMK] leaders. But the final report did not have any negative comments on the leaders. Which is more important? Interim or final?"
Gandhi was on a five-hour visit to Chennai. She and her party colleagues had tea at the DMK office with leaders of that party.
The two parties have tied up ahead of the general election. The Congress has got 10 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu under a seat-sharing formula.
Gandhi described her 30-minute meeting with Karunanidhi as "good" and said that by visiting Chennai, she fulfilled one of her promises made to DMK leaders M K Stalin and T R Baalu, who met her in New Delhi recently.
Gandhi said the DMK-Congress alliance was "a formidable and winning alliance" to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam front in Tamil Nadu.
Karunanidhi said it was "a politically good and honest meeting". "It is a meeting which is necessary to the country."
Gandhi criticised those who spoke of her foreign origins, including AIADMK leader and state Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and said, "I am Indian by heart. Regardless of what others say, including the AIADMK chief, it can't be removed from my heart."
On the dispute over the allocation of Pondicherry seat to the Pattali Makkal Katchi by the DMK, she said a solution would emerge within two days.
Asked whether the Congress would press for Nagercoil and Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha seats and whether she had discussed this with Karunanidhi, Gandhi pointed towards Kamal Nath and said, "These are small matters. Our general secretary will sort it out."
