Good news soon on withdrawal of POTA: Karunanidhi
The DMK chief has hinted at pressurising the Centre to withdraw POTA and call the Cauvery panel meeting to resolve water issue.
Implementation of the Sethu Samudram project within five years, linking of national rivers and declaring Tamil as a classical language are some of the demands which had been pressed for inclusion in the Common Minimum Programme of the new United Progressive Alliance government, DMK President, M Karunanidhi, said here on Sunday.
"There will soon be some good news on withdrawal of POTA', he told newsmen at the party headquarters on Sunday afternoon, immediately on arrival from New Delhi.
He replied in the negative when asked whether the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance in the state would compel the new government to use Article 356 to dismiss the Jayalalithaa government.
Karunanidhi said all necessary steps would be taken to solve the Cauvery dispute and to get water from Karnataka.
Pointing out that his party decided to join the government only after Congress President Sonia Gandhi personally requested him to do so, Karunanidhi said former Prime Minister V P Singh and CPI general secretary A B Bardhan also made similar requests.
The DMK chief said he would have been happier if 'one or two' more ministers from the Southern part of Tamil Nadu were included in the ministry.
Describing as 'a great sacrifice', Sonia Gandhi's decision not to accept the Prime Minister's post, he said by doing so, she had 'taken the wind out of the sails of BJP' which was raking up the foreigner issue.
Earlier, Karunanidhi, who played a crucial role in the formation of the Congress-led coalition government at the Centre, returned to the city to a tumultuous welcome by partymen.