The Hindu : Front Page : “DMK will consider sharing power with Congress”

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Monday, Sep 22, 2008
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“DMK will consider sharing power with Congress”

S. Ganesan

M.Karunanidhi.

TIRUCHI: Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi has said his party will consider sharing power with the Congress if there is a request from its ally’s high command.

“So far they have not asked me and I have only seen news reports in this regard. If the Congress leadership takes up the issue with me, we will not ignore it. We will discuss it in the party executive committee and the general council and arrive at a decision,” he said, speaking to reporters here on Sunday.

On the possibility of holding a mid-term election to the Assembly along with the Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Karunanidhi said such a decision would have to be made only by the party executive and the general council. Asked whether the Lok Sabha elections could be advanced, the Chief Minister said it could not be said with certainty. The DMK, as a democratic party, was always ready to face elections.

Answering a question on the 3.5 per cent reservation given to the minority communities, the Chief Minister said only Christians from Kanyakumari district had raised doubts that it could lead to a reduction in the number of seats.

Justice Janarthanam, who went into the reservation issue and came up with the plan, had given him a clear explanation with statistics to allay such doubts. “It has been satisfactory to us and we have explained the same to the Christians from the district. We hope they will be satisfied and if further doubts are raised, we will not ignore them,” he said.

Claiming that the DMK government was taking steps to increase power generation to ease shortage in future, Mr.Karunanidhi, however, said his government was facing the consequences of the lack of efforts to increase power generation during the previous regime.

He said there had been no such complaint over the quality of rice supplied at Re.1 a kg.

On the recent terror strikes in the country, the Chief Minister said all political parties had called for strong action. The Centre was taking appropriate action.

It would not be appropriate for him to say when the Sethusamudram project would be completed, as the issue was before the Supreme Court.

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