DMK cannot win on its own, relies on allies: TN Minister Nirmal Kumar

The DMK relied heavily on its allies to secure past electoral victories and is not capable of winning on its own, Tamil Nadu Minister R Nirmal Kumar said on Saturday.

Asking the Dravidian major to give up its attempt to poach ruling TVK legislators in a bid to destabilise the Government, the minister claimed that the Congress and the Left parties, now with the TVK, had moved away from the DMK as they were uncomfortable with its political manoeuvre towards the AIADMK.

He was responding to a question from reporters on the TVK MLA bribery case, in which ten persons were arrested by the Chennai police.

In his complaint, TVK legislator N Elaiyaraja had said that he was offered Rs 35 crore to vote against the Government during a proposed no-confidence motion against the Assembly Speaker.

Police claimed that the highly orchestrated political horse-trading was initiated under the codename ‘Meghalaya project’ to destabilise the C Joseph Vijay-led TVK Government. The target was to make 15 TVK legislators resign to bring down the Government, police said.

“The DMK is incapable of winning a significant number of seats on its own and relied heavily on the Congress, the Left and the VCK to secure electoral victories in the past. Without them, the DMK would struggle to reach even 20 seats on its own,” Kumar told reporters and asked the DMK to halt attempts to destabilise the TVK Government.

Targeting the DMK leadership, he said party president M K Stalin appeared to have instructed his party men to stop criticising the BJP, indicating that the DMK may be gearing up to cosy up to the BJP.

To a question, the state Energy, Resources and Law Minister replied that vacancies in the electricity board would be filled through the TNPSC once the enumeration of the number of contract workers was completed.