The Congress demand for power share notwithstanding, deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday expressed confidence that the DMK-led alliance would win the coming Assembly elections and M. Karunanidhi would continue as chief minister.
“It is quite clear that the people below poverty-line have decided to support the DMK alliance. There is no doubt that Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) will be elected as the next chief minister,” Mr Stalin said at a Samathuvapuram inauguration in Cuddalore.
“The next DMK government will implement various socio-economic welfare schemes,” he said, avoiding any mention of it being a DMK-led government or about Congress support, even as state Congressmen made a strong case for a pre-poll coalition agreement.
Coincidentally, earlier in the day at Satyamurthy Bhavan, most Congress MLAs, who shared their views on the alliance with the DMK with the party’s five-member seat sharing team, unanimously backed a deal that would involve sharing power with the DMK.
All Congress MLAs, except Hasan Ali of Ramnad and Gopal of Ooty who were absent for the meeting, were bent upon securing at least five Cabinet berths from the DMK. “We should not commit the mistake, as did we in 2006. We should pressure the DMK for the deputy chief minister’s post,” a senior Congress legislator told the committee.
The committee later called on DMK president and chief minister M. Karunanidhi at his residence.