By IANS
Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M. Karunanidhi Tuesday refuted speculation that his daughter M.K. Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha member, will be made union environment minister soon.
In a statement issued here, Karunanidhi said his daughter “was not yearning for the post of a minister”.
Reacting to a report in a Tamil newspaper run by the PMK, an ally of the DMK, which said the high-profile and vocal DMK leader was likely to take charge as environment minister in a few weeks, the chief minister lambasted the paper and its political masters for creating a “sensation”.
The environment and forests portfolio in the central government has been with the DMK since 1999, held first by T.R. Baalu and then A. Raja.
Raja was last year shifted from the ministry and given charge of the IT and telecommunication portfolio, when Dayanidhi Maran was dropped from the party.
The environment ministry has since then been without a fulltime cabinet minister though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with a minister of state has been in charge of it.