PUDUCHERRY: Former Puducherry CM and senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy on Monday said there was nothing wrong with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin’s statement that the DMK would come to power in the UT after the next Assembly elections.
Stalin, while speaking at the wedding of the son of former DMK minister SP Sivakumar at Pattanur on Monday, said the DMK never treated Puducherry separately. In the past, the DMK had formed governments in Puducherry either in alliance with Congress or without it. In the coming Assembly elections, the DMK would emerge as a strong force in the UT and form the government.
The elected government (AINRC-BJP) in Puducherry was not serving the people and the chief minister was functioning like a puppet, Stalin said. Though a tall leader, the CM bent before the lieutenant governor, who controlled everything, Stalin said, adding that such an administration was a shame for the elected government in the UT.
Puducherry, too, should have a “Dravidian-model” government as in TN, Stalin said and exhorted the cadre to work with that goal in mind. “Let’s decide who to ally with during the election,” he said and appealed to people not to allow sectarian parties to come to power in the UT.
Reacting to Stalin, Narayanasamy said it was normal for political leaders to make such statements to encourage cadre and cited instances of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying that his party would form a government in Gujarat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the BJP would come to power in Himachal Pradesh.
It was the expectation of political parties before elections and there was nothing wrong in it, said Narayanasamy adding that the alliance with the DMK would continue. While it was the DMK or the AIADMK that formed government in alliance with the Congress in TN, in Puducherry, it is the Congress that helms the alliance with either the DMK or the AIADMK. Stalin’s statement, however, is in deviation of this accepted policy.
Though Narayanasamy played down Stalin’s statement, he had earlier asserted that the Congress should lead all protests under the banner of Secular Progressive Democratic Alliance (SPDA), instead of the DMK.