CHENNAI: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) general secretary (Election Campaign Management) Aadhav Arjuna on Tuesday said his party president Vijay was offered 90 assembly seats and the post of Chief Minister for a period of 2.5 years, but the actor-turned-politician had refused it.
Though Aadhav’s remarks at a public meeting lent credibility to unconfirmed reports that there were efforts to rope in TVK into the NDA, he neither took the names of the AIADMK or the BJP nor clarified who had made such offers.
Aadhav said Vijay refused the offers as he wants to make TVK strong enough to deliver a government rooted in secularism and social justice.
“Our leader is not someone who will be submissive to Delhi to become CM,” he said.
He said he firmly wanted to convey to Christian and Muslim friends and everyone else that TVK will contest in all 234 constituencies without forming alliance.
“To true Christian and Muslim brothers, we remain truthful,” he said.
Aadhav, who had come under criticism for his remarks on actor Rajinikanth’s decision to not enter politics, said his intention was not to belittle the veteran actor, but to merely expose the “conspiracy of the DMK”.
In a protest meeting organised by his party on Thursday, Aadhav had alleged the “DMK family” ensured Rajinikanth did not enter politics by “issuing several threats”.
“See what happened to him today. He has gone back to acting in movies produced by Red Giant Movies,” Aadhav had said, while contrasting him with Vijay to imply that the latter has the mental strength needed for politics.
On Tuesday, he said his party has no hatred but only love towards Rajinikanth. Stating that just like Vijay, Tamil superstar is a good person who wanted to enter politics not for making money, Aadhav said he was earlier referring only to the defamatory propaganda DMK had made against the actor. He said even AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami had done the same.
He said Vijay’s latest movie Jana Nayagan could not be released as planned due to political reasons, but refrained from naming any party.