Every party has the right to strengthen its base, Puducherry Congress Committee chief says

PCC chief A. V. Subramanian said the party would cherish its alliance with the DMK, but admitted that it had not been able to fulfil some of its pre-poll understandings with the DMK the last time around

Reacting to ally DMK’s plan to contest all 30 seats for the Assembly elections in the Union Territory, Puducherry Congress Committee (PCC) chief A. V. Subramanian on Tuesday said the Congress would always cherish the alliance with the Dravidian party because of ideological bonding. At the same time the Congress would respect the right of other political parties to strengthen their base.

“We cherish the alliance with DMK. The party helped Congress to form the government after the last elections. We would like to continue the alliance but can’t stop them from taking efforts to strengthen their base. Not just DMK, all parties, including Congress would like to increase their presence,” Mr. Subramanian told The Hindu.

Admitting that the Congress was not able to fulfil some of its pre-poll understandings with DMK, the senior Congress leader said there was an assurance to appoint a nominated MLA belonging to the DMK and accommodate their nominees as chairpersons of Corporations and Boards but the proposal could not be implemented because of the intervention of the Centre and Lt Governor. “The DMK leadership knows how the Centre used the Lt Governor to appoint three BJP members as nominated legislators. We wanted to stick to our pre-poll understanding and to accommodate DMK members but we couldn’t because of Centre’s sudden intervention, he said.

Stating that the bonding with the DMK was natural because of both parties’ ideological commitments towards secularism and democratic principles, the PCC chief said the electoral fight was with the BJP and parties aligned with communal forces. “The DMK knows our fight is with anti-secular forces. The Congress wanted to continue the fight together. Anyway, we have apprised the party leadership of the latest developments. We will abide by the decision of the high command,” Mr. Subramanian said.

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