Only coalition Govt possible in TN, says TMC

Even if the AIADMK contested a large number of seats in the Assembly in a bid to win the required number of seats to form its own government, what would happen if it did not obtain a majority, he asked.

Moopanar said the TMC’s executive meeting at Chidambaramon August 29 would discuss the alliance issue threadbare.

He said Jayalalitha herself had stated that she respected freedom of expression. “I had expressed my views on the issue. Coalition government has become the order of the day. She has also expressed her views on the issue,” he said.

Asserting that TMC was in a front of secular parties, he said the issue of alliance would be decided only during election time. However, it would have no truck with the BJP.

Jayalalitha, at a function here last night, had rejected the TMC and Congress demand, that a coalition government should be formed in the state if the alliance was voted to power after next year’s Assembly polls.

Meanwhile, AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha, in a damage-control exercise, deputed Dravidar Kazhagam General Secretary K Veeramani and Tamil Nadu RJD leader K Jagaveerapandiyan to meet Moopanar and assuage his feelings.

Both leaders were instrumental in bringing AIADMK and TMC closer.

Asked for his comments on AIADMK presidium chairman K Kalimuthu’s remarks that AICC president Sonia Gandhi had `spoiled’ a golden opportunity, provided by the AIADMK in 1999, Moopanar said “put this question to Sonia Gandhi’.

TMC sources expressed anguish over Jayalalitha’s remarks atthe function, in which Moopanar also participated. ‘It only showed the height of her arrogance’, they said,adding that the party leadership should take a serious view of her comments.

They said Jayalalitha could have conveyed her views oncoalition through a statement. Instead, she had sought to ‘humiliate’ Moopanar by making the remarks in his presence, the sources said.