Tamil Nadu: TVK Out To Smoothen Ruffled Feathers Of Allies
The meeting would discuss matters relating to giving a name to the coalition: Reports
CHENNAI: The TVK has sent out invitations to leaders of its alliance parties for a meeting on Wednesday, September 9, in Chennai, apparently to take stock of the situation in the ruling alliance that it is spearheading in the State and also to smoothen any feathers that might have been ruffled.
A team of TVK leaders comprising, among others, State Ministers N Anand, Aadhav Arjuna, C T R Nirmal Kumar and A Rajmohan, called on CPM state secretary P Shanmugham. Though the TVK claimed that to be a courtesy call, soon the team met MDMK founder Vaiko.
Vaiko said that it was to invite him to the meeting of the alliance partners to interact with them and find out if they had any grievances. But the meeting is apparently aimed at assuaging the hurt feelings of some of the allies.
The CPM, for example, had been speaking openly against the TVK government and even organizing protests. But insiders claim that the allies were aspiring for some posts like welfare board chairpersons and so on, which the TVK government was reluctant to give away.
While allies like VCK, Congress and IUML have representatives in the Cabinet, the CPI, CPM and MDMK are extending outside support and would like to have posts in the welfare boards allotted to them.
It is learnt that the TVK leadership had put its foot down and said no to the demands of the allies, which had led to resentment among some. So, to assuage any ill-feeling that might have cropped up, the meeting had been called for with top leaders of TVK personally dispatching the invitations.
The meeting would discuss matters relating to giving a name to the coalition, identifying a coordinator or a committee to steer it and finalizing the future collective agenda by setting political goals, sources said.