Centre plotting to wrest control of Tamil Nadu: Congress

NEW DELHI: The undercurrents in Tamil Nadu politics over CM J Jayalalithaa’s illness came to the foreground with the Congress alleging a ‘plot’ by the Centre “to control the state by stealth as a way of working towards imposing President’s rule.”

Even as the state governor allocated ailing CM’s portfolios to the finance minister, senior Congress leader EM Sudarsana Natchiappan told ET that ever since BJP leader Subramanian Swamy wrote to the Union Home Minister, seeking imposition of central rule in TN, “the governor has gone on an over-drive, directly interfering with the day-today administration of the state.”

“The AIADMK (the ailing CM’s party) has the people’s mandate and it has a clear majority in the assembly.

There is neither a split in the ruling party nor any dispute over its leadership.

Therefore, it is entirely the internal matter of AIADMK to decide how to deal with the state administration during the illness of CM.

The state governor has no business to go on an overdrive by summoning senior ministers and chief secretary to interfere with the day-to-day administration,” Natchiappan said.

The Congress leader’s comments, incidentally, comes within days after Rahul Gandhi made a visit to the Chennai hospital to inquire about the CM’s health.

It is no secret that most parties with stakes, or ambitions, in TN politics have been subtly positioning since the CM was admitted many days ago over an undisclosed illness.

“On the one hand, the governor has suddenly started becoming over active.

On the other, after the Centre dispatched a group of AIIMS doctors to Chennai, all kinds of rumors have started spreading about the condition of the CM.

There is a deliberate and constant attempt to project an atmosphere of exaggerated uncertainty and instability in Tamil Nadu,” Natchiappan said.