'Was approached jointly by DMK, AIADMK to become Tamil Nadu CM': Thirumavalavan

Thol's statement comes on a day when a section of AIADMK MLAs opposed to party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami accused him of seeking an alliance with archrival DMK to keep TVK away from power.

VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan has claimed that both DMK and AIADMK had approached him to become chief minister of Tamil Nadu. He further said that he was asked to become the CM to head a possible alliance the Dravidian archrivals could have forged to form government to keep the TVK away from power.

However, the DMK has dismissed such claims.

His statement comes on a day when a section of AIADMK MLAs opposed to party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami accused him of seeking an alliance with archrival DMK to keep TVK away from power. The said faction has since announced support for the C Joseph Vijay-led dispensation ahead of its floor test on Wednesday.

"I got information that they (DMK-AIADMK) had decided to make me as a chief minister. However, after consulting with the party senior leaders, we have rejected it", Thirumavalavan reporters here.

With regard to the claim that VCK was late in announcing support to TVK, the VCK leader said "we can't take a decision in haste. On May 8, I consulted with my party leaders through a zoom meeting. Though we arrived with a solution, we could not announce it immediately since it has to be discussed further." He said that on May 9 both the VCK and TVK supporters assumed that an announcement would be made in the morning. "We have not announced that VCK will make a statement on May 9th morning. The discussion is a long process. Therefore, we took our own time to support TVK".

VCK had won in two assembly seats and provided support to TVK party to form government.

(With PTI inputs)