Claiming that Tamils will be happy if the three Rajiv killers are spared the gallows, DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Monday "fervently" asked for a cancellation of their death sentence.

In a statement in Chennai, the party patriarch said "they have spent nearly 20 years in prison which is more than life imprisonment, the capital punishment now proposed should be cancelled. If this is done, the entire Tamil race will extol such humanitarian action and they will be happy."

"I fervently appeal to the central and state governments to save the lives of the three youths from the clutches of death, taking this not as an epistle, but as a mercy petition."

Karunanidhi also said "had Rajiv Gandhi been alive today, that noble man would have definitely come forward to save the lives" of the three convicts.

Karunanidhi said he knew persons who were "pursuing a constructive way of life" after their death sentences were commuted.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had said earlier on Monday she has no power to alter the Presidential order rejecting the clemency plea of the three Rajiv Gandhi assassins, who are set to be hanged on September 9.

Apparently taking a dig at Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi said that when "'Tamil Eelam' (separate nation in Sri Lanka) freedom fighters and innocent Tamils were attacked and killed by the Sinhalese Army, we did not remain silent saying that such things are quite common in war".

He also recalled the several letters he wrote to the Central government and various personal representations to the PM for the cause.

"If anyone pretends ignorance to these steps we have taken, it is politics and nothing else. We don't wish to discuss this and moreover this is not the time to discuss it".