Lot of time for Congress to finalise alliance in Tamil Nadu: Natchiappan

SIVAGANGA: Indicating that an alliance is possible with DMDK, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry E M Sudarasa Natchiappan today said Congress has a 'lot of time' to finalise poll alliance in the state and continued to have good relations with that party.


Speaking to reporters here, he cited the ongoing SSLC and plus two exams as the reasons for delay in talks for electoral alliance in Tamil Nadu. Congress, he said, was going it alone in 23 states and seat-sharing talks were over in states like Bihar, Kashmir and Maharashtra.

Congress and BJP are in direct fight in nine states, he said.

On the possibility of again having an alliance with DMK, he said "DMK had alliance with us earlier in UPA and Congress also helped it win in the Rajya Sabha elections". However he did not elaborate.

He alleged the attacks on the headquarters of the state Congress unit at Sathyamoorthy Bhavan in Chennai proved the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu was deteriorating and demanded that the state government ensure it did not go out of hand.

On February 26, workers of pro-Tamil outfit "Tamil Padai" (Tamil Force) tried to storm it to condemn the union government over Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts' release issue.

Even as they raised slogans, Congress cadres gathered and began shouting them down. In the melee, stones were pelted on either side by some unidentified persons.

Natchiappan said the reason for reducing the kerosene quota in Tamil Nadu was increase in supply of LPG cylinders following introduction of free LPG stove scheme by the erstwhile DMK government. "We gave more cylinders and so the number of takers for kerosene have reduced, he said.