Coalition partner quits Indian government

A regional party from southern India said Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the national ruling coalition, weakening the government which was already a minority in parliament, reports said. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), based in the state of Tamil Nadu, had been pressuring the government to condemn Sri Lanka over alleged war crimes against ethnic minority Tamils during the neighbouring island's civil war. Party leader Muthuvel Karunanidhi announced that his party would withdraw from the left-leaning United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition which has been in power since 2009, the Press Trust of India and NDTV television reported. The dramatic move significantly raises the chances of elections before their scheduled date in the first half of 2014, with the UPA a minority since September last year when another regional party withdrew its support. The DMK, which depends on Tamil voters who have close ties with their counterparts in Sri Lanka, has 18 members of parliament in the lower house and five positions in the cabinet. Karunanidhi had warned at the weekend that the DMK would withdraw unless the Indian government supported a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that condemned "genocide and war crimes" in Sri Lanka. "If our requests are not heeded our relationship with this alliance will not continue," he had said on Sunday.