STILL HOPEFUL: Congress leader Veerappa Moily with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhai at the latter's residence in Chennai on Thursday. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: The State unit of the Congress has not given up its demand for a share in power in Tamil Nadu and party MLAs are hopeful that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would consider it, Congress Working Committee member M. Veerappa Moily, who is also in-charge of party affairs in the State, has said.

However, the party does not want to embarrass Mr. Karunanidhi by pressing the demand. "We have left the issue to the party high command and the Chief Minister," Mr. Moily said here on Thursday.

`Legitimate demand'

Mr. Moily, who was closeted with Congress MPs and MLAs for more than an hour on Wednesday night, said a majority of them felt they could serve people better and help the party grow by getting a share in power. Their demand was legitimate. But it would not affect the coalition government as the Congress always stood for coalition dharma.

The party was committed to supporting the Government for its full term.

Admitting that it was a mistake to not hold organisational polls in the State for long, Mr. Moily said this could be a reason for groupism. Until organisational elections were held, the party had would nominate district presidents, Pradesh Committee, block level and booth level committee members.

Road map ready

When journalists said that the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) was likely to emerge as a third force in the State, replacing the Congress, Mr. Moily said the party would strive to reach the second position. The Congress had prepared a road map to achieve this. Referring to the State Government's demand for rewriting the Constitution, Mr. Moily said whenever the Congress was in power, it had brought constitutional amendments to meet the aspirations of people.

He said that the Supreme Court's verdict that legislations in the Ninth Schedule were open to judicial review would negate the very purpose of the Schedule, incorporated in the Constitution by Jawaharlal Nehru at the instance of Kamaraj.

The United Progressive Alliance and the Congress would discuss the issue and take a final decision.

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