The war of words between ruling DMK and its key ally PMK seems to be reaching a flash-point with both hurling charges against each other. The latest being PMK founder S Ramadoss' remarks that the government was "unfit" to rein in "money-fleecing" self-financing engineering colleges.

The comments of Ramadoss came after the Tamil Nadu government hiked the fees for management quota seats in the self-financing engineering colleges.

DMK chief and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, upset over several critical remarks of Ramadoss, said that the PMK leader seems to have decided to criticise the government for each and every decision with some "motive".

Karunanidhi had also dubbed Ramadoss as a "betrayer" for his remarks on the eve of DMK government completing two years in office that it had "failed the test".

Ramadoss, countering Karunanidhi, had said his party cannot be a "sycophant" and accept the "unilateral" decisions taken by the DMK government, which is depending on the support of its DPA allies, including PMK.

Karunanidhi, however, had gained strength from the unstinted support of the Congress, which has 36 members in the assembly, thanks to his rapport with party President Sonia Gandhi. The Chief Minister had asked his partymen to ignore PMK's criticisms.

The PMK appears to be looking to Congress as a potential partner in an alliance to be floated by it for the 2011 assembly polls.

It had already announced that it would form a non-DMK and non-AIADMK alliance for the next assembly polls, but had said it would be in "secular alliance" headed by the Congress for the next Lok Sabha polls.