Chennai Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu MK Stalin said on Wednesday that a power-sharing government in Tamil Nadu would not succeed, responding to Congress’s demand for coalition rule ahead of assembly elections in the state.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief MK Stalin during a training conference for polling station agents ahead of the state assembly elections, in Thiruvidantai, Tamil Nadu. (@Arivalayam)Addressing an event in Chennai, Stalin said, “It (power sharing) will not work Tamil Nadu…We know that and so do they (Congress). Some are trying to destabilize the alliance with ulterior motives. Neither we (Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam) nor they (Congress) are worried about it.
Stalin said he shared a “family-like relationship” with the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “He (Gandhi) considers me one of his family. I consider him the same.”
Power-sharing talks have emerged as a key issue among the ruling party’s allies as well as opponents, with a section of the Congress’s Tamil Nadu unit urging its leadership to negotiate a pact with the DMK.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expressed interest in forming a coalition government in Tamil Nadu, while its ally the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has opposed the proposal. During the prime minister Dr Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has claimed to form the government, with AIADMK general secretary and chief ministerial candidate Edappadi Palaniswami taking the opposite stand that his party will form the majority government.
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After CM Stalin’s speech, Congress MP Manikom Thakur said the people of Tamil Nadu will decide whether they want a coalition or a single-party government.
“Our failure was to fail to implement the verdict of the people in 2006,” Tagore wrote in X.
In the 2006 assembly elections, the DMK won 96 seats and was 22 seats short of a simple majority in the 234-member assembly. In the absence of an absolute majority, then DMK chief M Karunanidhi formed a minority government with outside support from parties like the Congress and the Left.
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Since 1967, Tamil Nadu has been successively ruled by the DMK AIADMK. Despite their participation at the national level, they have historically opposed the coalition government in Tamil Nadu. An AIADMK cites the example of the 1980 assembly elections in TN – when DMK and Congress proposed a coalition government, the people of Tamil Nadu rejected them and voted AIADMK as the single largest party.
