VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan on Wednesday claimed that both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had approached him with a proposal to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and head a possible alliance between the two Dravidian rivals aimed at preventing the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from coming to power.
The VCK MP’s remarks came on a day when a section of AIADMK MLAs opposed to party chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami accused him of attempting to forge an alliance with archrival DMK to keep TVK out of power.
The dissident faction has since extended support to the government led by C. Joseph Vijay ahead of the floor test scheduled for Wednesday.
The DMK, however, dismissed the allegations.
“I received information that they (DMK and AIADMK) had decided to make me the Chief Minister. However, after consultations with senior party leaders, we rejected the proposal,” Thirumavalavan told reporters here.
Responding to criticism that the VCK delayed announcing its support to TVK, Thirumavalavan said, “We cannot take decisions in haste.”
He said that on May 8, he held consultations with party leaders through a Zoom meeting.
“Although we arrived at a decision, we could not announce it immediately because further discussions were required,” he said.
Thirumavalavan added that both VCK and TVK supporters had expected an announcement on the morning of May 9.
“We never said that VCK would issue a statement on the morning of May 9. Discussions are a long process. Therefore, we took our own time before extending support to TVK,” he said.
The VCK won two Assembly seats and later extended support to the TVK to help it form the government.
