CHENNAI: Announcing that his party would extend its unconditional support to the C Joseph Vijay’s TVK to form a government on Saturday, VCK president Thol Thirumavalan said their goal was to avoid President’s rule in the state. He said he had taken the decision in line with the Left parties. The VCK has two MLA-elects in the new House.
“We held discussions together with the Left parties. We have been travelling together since the days of People’s Welfare alliance in 2016. As we had already said that we would stand by the decision taken by the Left parties, VCK has also extended its support to Vijay to form the government and will not be part of the government,”
Thirumavalavan told reporters, adding that the decision was taken at the party’s high-level meeting on Friday evening. “We do not want VCK to become the reason for denying the opportunity for the party that won 108 seats to form the government,” he added.
He said that both VCK and the Left parties would extend only outside support to a TVK-led government and that no conditions had been imposed. He also confirmed that the VCK would remain in the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance.
“We do not believe this decision will affect our alliance relationship,” he said. Asked if DMK president MK Stalin had been informed about the decision, Thirumavalavan said Stalin had been informed in advance. “He told us that if we extend support, it would be our party’s decision. From the beginning, the DMK has maintained that it would not obstruct Vijay from forming the government,” he said.
Asked about his past criticism of TVK that it is a child of RSS, Thirumavalavan reiterated that he stands by the criticism. “But, in the present context, the support is only to avoid a crisis. This is a crisis. There are no commitments between us. There are no terms and conditions. There was no bargaining. We never took any efforts to negotiate with them. We have not changed our criticism against Vijay, and there is no correlation between the two. Their criticism and our understanding of them is the same. We never said we will join them in running the government,” Thirumavalavan said.
He denied reports that VCK had sought to negotiate for a deputy CM post from TVK or to be made CM by the two Dravidian majors. Meanwhile, the IUML, which had said on Friday that it would not offer support to TVK, on Saturday took a U-turn.
In a letter addressed to the governor, IUML state chief SSB Syed Farooq Basha, and deputy leader, AM Shahjahan, of the IUML legislature party said the decision was taken under the instructions of the party’s national president, KM Kader Mohideen, and in the interest of ensuring a stable, secular and democratic government in TN.