Chennai, May 21:
After the Congress party, which broke ranks with the DMK, allied with the TVK of C Jospeh Vijay and entered the Cabinet after 59 years ushering in the coalition era of governance in Tamil Nadu for the first time, the DMK’s oldest ally, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Thursday too announced its decision to join the Council of Ministers, paving the way for first ever major post-poll political realignment in the state.
After getting the nod of the top IUML leaders at the National level, Party President K M Khader Moideen talking to reporters after a meeting of the party’s administrative committee announced that IUML has accepted the invitation extended with a big heart by Vijay and decided to join the cabinet as a Minister for Minorities Welfare.
Of the two MLAs–A M Shahjahan elected from Papanasam in Thanjavur district–would soon be sworn in as the Minister and the IUML would press for another Cabinet berth for its other Legislator Syed Farooq Pasha, elected from Vaniyambadi, later, he said.
Mr Khaden Moideen said a meeting of the party leaders decided to be a part of the government led by Vijay and also decided to recommend the name of Shahjahan for inclusion in the Cabinet.
This meant that IUML, which had initially offered unconditional outside support while deciding to stay with the multi-party DMK-led Front, would now quit the Front before joining the Vijay Ministry, signalling yet another desertion in the DMK-led alliance, after
Congress with 5 MLAs, became the first party to jump to the rescue of TVK after it fell short of majority despite emerging as the single largest party in the Assembly elections and eventually made its entry into the Cabinet, earlier in the day, when two of its MLAs–CLP Leader S Rajesh Kumar (Killiyoor) and P Viswanathan (Melur) were accommodated in the first ever coalition regime and were given the portfolios of Tourism and Higher Education respectively.
The TVK has also extended an invitation to the dalit outfit VCK, which too has two Legislators and providing unconditional outside support, to join the Ministry. The VCK while welcoming the offer, said it would take a decision after holding a meeting with party leaders later today. If the VCK headed by its Founder Thol Thirumavalavan, also a Lok Sabha MP, too decides to toe the line of IUML and enter the Cabinet, it would in all probability be allotted the portfolio of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare department, resulting in further political polarisation in the state.
The move was seen as the ruling TVK’s broader outreach effort to accommodate alliance partners and ensure wider political representation in the newly formed coalition government.