By IANS,
Chennai : Tamil Nadu Congress president K.V. Thangkabalu and Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation G.K. Vasan Tuesday subtly reminded the 27-month-old DMK government that it was now surviving at its pleasure.
“Our party workers are yearning to bring back Kamaraj rule in the state. We lost power in Tamil Nadu 40 years ago. But, our 20 percent vote bank is not only intact but also growing,” said Thangkabalu while addressing Congressmen during a function to celebrate the birthdays of late Congress leaders Rajiv Gandhi and G.K. Moopanar here.
“The Congress will not be afraid of agitations to assert its rights, to capture power at the centre and elsewhere to underline its self-respect,” Thangkabalu added.
Vasan launched a bitter attack on the leftwing and rightwing opposition in the state.
“The left and rightwing parties are spreading a false fear psychosis in the nation by claiming we have hawked our defence interests through the nuclear agreement with the US. Our people will not be taken in by this canard,” said Vasan.
“The ruling DMK ought to realise that its regime is now in a minority and is continuing due to our indulgence. It is high time we should be accorded our rightful, respectful place in the state government,” a Congress legislator told IANS after the function.
Meanwhile, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan, another supporter of the DMK, faulted the state police for attacking his party workers in the southern outskirts of here last week to prevent them from attending a fete.
“Everyone knows that the police arrived on the scene four hours after a minor skirmish in Kalpakkam and savagely assaulted VCK workers and broke windscreens of vehicles to apportion blame on us. It was an obvious attempt to prevent our people from coming to Chennai,” Thirumavalavan said.
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi holds the home portfolio that controls the state’s police department.
The Congress with 35 and VCK with 2 legislators respectively are the only parties supporting the DMK government which has 95 lawmakers in the 235-member house.
While the PMK with 18 legislators was jettisoned from the Democratic Progressive Alliance led by Karunanidhi in June, the left with a combined strength of 15 in the assembly announced its wish to render its relationship with the DMK asunder Aug 1.
PMK’s founder leader Ramadoss Monday said that his party would back a hypothetical left sponsored no-confidence motion against the government.