Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections: In a major statement, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) general secretary Aadhav Arjuna said that actor-turned-politician Vijay was offered the chief minister's post and 50 per cent assembly seats by a party for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Arjuna did not name the party but dropped a big hint, saying Vijay is not a person who will succumb to Delhi.
The claim by TVK indicates that the 50:50 seat-sharing offer came from a national party. Arjuna made the revelation while addressing a TVK meeting in Kolathur on Tuesday night.
"Vijay is not a person who will succumb to Delhi for the sake of the chief minister's post. They gave us all kinds of offers - from 50 to 90 seats. All that Vijay said was that he wanted the trust of Tamil Nadu people, not the CM's post," Arjuna was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Earlier, there were rumours and speculations that the BJP had reached out to the TVK to discuss the possibility of an alliance, to prepare a strong front for challenging the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). However, TVK leaders had categorically denied being in talks with the saffron party, saying that the party is their ideological enemy.
Responding to reports of alliance talks, CTR Nirmal Kumar, TVK deputy general secretary, had said: "We would like to make it categorical that no talks of any kind have taken place with any specific parties or political leaders at any level."
Calling such news baseless, Nirmal added that it was spread by members of the DMK to create confusion among the public and party workers.
BJP state chief Nainar Nagenthran and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami also said that their parties were not in talks with the TVK.
The Election Commission has announced the schedule for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections. The voting for all 234 seats will be held in a single phase on April 23. The counting of votes and declaration of results will be on May 4.
(With PTI Inputs)