The MDMK’s headquarters secretary and the party’s candidate for the Tiruchi Lok Sabha constituency, Durai Vaiko, on April 20, 2024, made it clear that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi would be the Prime Minister of the country when the INDIA bloc formed a government at the Centre.
“The MDMK has been saying it for the past two years and it is also my personal opinion that he should be the Prime Minister. I do not know about the views of our alliance partners,” he said, at a press meet in Chennai, when told that alliance partners had not yet put forth a Prime Ministerial candidate.
Mr. Durai said that even during his campaign in Delhi, he had expressed his views on this subject. “I told people that funds would be allotted for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes (MGNREGS) once Rahul Gandhi became the Prime Minister after a change of regime at the Centre. The people were appreciative of this,” he said, after his meeting with Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to thank him for his support.
Asked whether he would get a berth if the INDIA bloc was elected to power, he said he did not nurture any such ambitions. “I felt like laughing when you asked this question. We have contested in just one seat,” said Mr Durai, recalling his decision to enter the fray only after the party’s cadre persuaded him to contest.
“In the 2021 Assembly elections, I was offered the Sattur constituency to contest in. But I nominated my party cadre as a candidate,” he pointed out.
Mr. Durai expressed the hope that the DMK and its allies would win all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as the achievements of the DMK government had been well received by people, particularly in rural areas and among women.
Asked about his party symbol, he said he not faced any problem when it came to popularising the ‘matchbox’ symbol. “It is a well-known symbol and people use matchboxes in their everyday life,” he said. It may be recalled that the MDMK lost its ‘top’ symbol after the Election Commission of India refused to re-assign it this symbol due to the party’s decision to contest in only one seat in the elections.
Mr. Durai also said he was also fully satisfied with the support from, and the campaigning by the DMK’s leaders particularly Ministers K.N. Nehru, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, S. Regupathy and Siva V. Meyyanathan.
