The DMK has decided to take the sensitive inter-state issue directly to the people. On Wednesday night the DMK took the first step towards shaping a new political strategy to counter what it feels are “unfriendly moves” by its ally, Congress at the Centre, in the wake of Kerala beginning a “forest survey” to build a new dam at the site of the 113-year-old Mullaperiyar reservoir bordering Theni district in Tamil Nadu.

Even as Kerala began the survey on Tuesday after a nod by a committee that came under the aegis Ramesh’s ministry, the Supreme Court also declined to stay the project.

Without explicitly mentioning the developments in the SC, the party headquarters took recourse to a political response by announcing a protest rally at the Temple city of Madurai on November 1.

The rally to be addressed by Karunanidhi is specifically “to condemn the attitudes and actions of a certain Union Minister of State vis-a-vis the Mullaperiyar Dam issue,” the DMK declared in a brief communique, obviously targeting its ire at Ramesh. While TN insists on retaining the dam in its present form and raising the water level for irrigation in the State to 142 feet, Kerala seems determined to construct a new dam.

Madurai has been chosen for rally due to is proximity to the dam site and taking into account the large bumber of farmers in the Southern districts who are dependent on its water.