Chennai, Sep 3:
Amid reports of growing tensions between the ruling TVK and its new found ally, the Congress, over Vijay as PM face narratives, Tamil Nadu Food and Civil Supplier Minister and TVK Treasurer P.Venkataramanan on Thursday sought to downplay it saying, it was only the wish of some party MLAs and that it was not the official stand of the party.
The tension was palpable as the PM narrative gained momentum, with some TVK Ministers, MLAs and party functionaries pitching for Vijay as the potential PM candidate for the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress, which was kept in tenterhooks after theTVK Founder and Chief Minister’s silence, has been asserting that Rahul Gandhi would be its choice.
Queering the pitch was Tourism Minister and Congress leader Rajesh Kumar, who had warned that both the Ministers–he and Higher Education Minister P.Viswanathan–would resign their posts and wak out of the Vijay Cabinet if TVK did not support Rahul as PM face in 2029.
In this backdrop,TNCC President and Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore and party Rajya Sabha MP Praveen Chakravarty, considered the architects of the Congress-TVK alliance, had called on Vijay at the Secretariat in a bid to put an end to the verbal spat between the two parties on the question of PM face.
Amid these developments, in what could be seen as an apparent damage control exercise, the remarks of Minister Venkataramanan assumed significance and could soothen the ruffled feathers of the Congress.
Talking to reporters after launching the sale of Onion at Rs 35 kg in a PDS shop as part of lessening the burden of the common man from soaring prices, the Minister said “Only our MLAs are expressing their wish and willingness (that PM is the potential PM face.. Anyone can express their wishes. There is time. In the future, the government led by Vijay will decide and take the right decision when we approach 2029,” he added.
He clarified that neither the TVK leadership nor its Ministers had announced Vijay as a PM candidate. “None from the TVK top brass has said anything like that. Portraying Vijay as the PM candidate is the individual views of our Legislators and It is not the official stand of our party,” he said.
The Minister said the legislators were projecting CM Vijay with the objective of extending transparent and corruption-free governance across the country. “Our MLAs want this transparent, corruption-free governance to be expanded pan-India and that is why they are projecting CM Vijay as PM”.