Chennai, Oct 1 (IANS): The AIADMK leadership has lashed out at the ruling DMK over the reported statement of its senior leader and state Water resources minister S. Duraimurugan that MGR was a betrayer in a recent DMK party meeting.

AIADMK leaders and former Chief Ministers O. Panneerselvam and K. Palaniswami in a joint statement released on Thursday said the 'statement of Duraimurugan was false and that it was Karunanidhi who had betrayed MGR'.

The AIADMK leaders said that MGR was a popular matinee idol and that it was the popularity of MGR that led to the DMK capturing power. The leaders said that Duraimurugan's statement was like "Satan preaching scriptures".

The AIADMK leaders said that Karunanidhi was the biggest betrayer and said that withdrawal of a case from Supreme Court in the inter-state Cauvery water dispute issue was the biggest betrayal against the people of Tamil Nadu.

OPS and EPS in the joint statement said 'handing over Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka was the biggest betrayal the late Chief Minister has done to the fishermen of Tamil Nadu claiming that civil war had ended in Sri Lanka. The massacre of Sri Lankan Tamils in the Island nation was a major betrayal of the Tamil diaspora and joining the Centre government to ban Jallikattu was a betrayal of the sportsperson of the state'.

The former Chief Ministers also said that introducing NEET was a major betrayal of the poor rural students of Tamil Nadu.

The statement of the AIADMK leaders is to open a war of words between the AIADMK and the DMK. Political observer and Director of Centre for Policy and Development Studies, C. Rajeev while speaking to IANS said, "It is a major development and the war of words will continue. Don't think that the DMK will be cowed down by this statement from the AIADMK leaders. We can expect DMK bringing out a list against the AIADMK also and this seems to be the beginning of the end of the bonhomie between the two parties."