Rahul Gandhi— DC File

CHENNAI: Asserting that their leader Rahul Gandhi would be the Prime Ministerial candidate for the alliance led by the TVK in the State, TNCC president Manickam Tagore said the meeting of TVK and its allies on September 9, Wednesday, would discuss the strategies to be adopted as a coalition for the elections that they would soon be facing.

After meeting TVK ministers, N Anand and Aadhav Arjuna, who were going around town for the second day, calling on leaders of the alliance parties to invite them for the September 9 meeting that would be held at the TVK headquarters in Panaiyur, Tagore told media persons that the alliance, besides finalizing a name for it would discuss ways to approach the elections, including the local body polls.

AICC leader and Rajya Sabha member, Praveen Chakravorty, was with Tagore when he met the visiting TVK leaders at the TNCC headquarters, Sathyamurthy Bhavan, and held discussions for about 45 minutes.

Dismissing the recent controversy that erupted over TVK leaders projecting Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay as the next Prime Ministerial candidate as a closed chapter, he said Rahul Gandhi would be the unanimous choice of the coalition in the State.

The Congress would attend the consultative meeting at Paniyur, which would be the second formal discussion among the allies, he said, adding that no attempts to create a rift between the alliance partners would succeed.

The TVK leaders had also met the State-level top brass of the CPI and CPM on Friday night but there was confirmation on the participation of those parties in the Panaiyur meeting. Those two Left parties that are not part of the Vijay-led Cabinet had skipped the earlier coordination meeting of the alliance held on July 1.


Tags: