Reflecting further strains in his party’s ties with Congress, DMK chief Karunanidhi has blamed the Centre for the arrest of his daughter Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case.

“Kanimozhi is in Tihar jail, either it could be due to Centre’s order or complacency,” the DMK patriarch said in his first public meeting after the Assembly polls in his Tiruvarur constituency here last night.

Mr Karunanidhi, who often turned emotional during the meeting, alleged that Ms Kanimozhi had been arrested as the CBI had to hold someone accountable and said her mistake was his mistake — of making her a shareholder in Kalaignar TV.

“I compelled her to become a shareholder with a view to secure her future,” he said adding that she was languishing in the jail under testing conditions. “You know a flower kept there will wither away quickly due to the temperature there.”

Mr Karunanidhi’s comments come two days after he said on his birthday “...bad friendship will result in trouble’’.

The DMK chief’s remark was seen as a subtle message about his being sore with his party’s seven-year old ally Congress, with whom his party’s ties have not been the best of late.

The strain in the DMK’s alliance with the lead UPA partner had come out very clearly during seat-sharing negotiations for the April 13 Assembly polls with the Congress managing to wrest 63 seats from the DMK.

The DMK-Congress alliance came under more stress after the arrest of the Dravidian party’s Dalit face, Mr A. Raja, former Telecom Minister, in the 2G scam.

With the 2G scam reaching the doors of Mr Karunanidhi’s family, leading to the arrest of Ms Kanimozhi, the unease between the two partners has grown more.

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