CHENNAI: Seeking to downplay the emerging strain between the TVK and its ally Congress over the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and the Prime Ministerial candidate, Food and Civil Supplies Minister and TVK treasurer P Venkataramanan on Thursday said the projection of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate was only the wish of some party MLAs and not the official position of the party.
His remarks came amid growing assertions by TVK legislators that Joseph Vijay should be projected for the Prime Minister’s post, while Congress has maintained that Rahul Gandhi would be its choice for the 2029 elections.
“Only our MLAs are expressing their wish and willingness. Anyone can express their wishes. There is time. In the future, the government led by CM C Joseph Vijay will decide and take the right decision as we approach 2029,” Venkataramanan told reporters here.
He stressed that neither the TVK leadership nor its Ministers had endorsed Joseph Vijay as a Prime Ministerial candidate.
“None of the TVK top brass or leaders has said anything like that. Portraying Vijay as the PM candidate is the individual view of our MLAs. It is not the official stand of our party. None of our Ministers has said so,” he said.
The Minister said the legislators were projecting CM Vijay with the objective of extending transparent and corruption-free governance across the country.
“Our MLAs want this transparent, corruption-free governance to be expanded across the nation and that is why they are projecting CM Vijay as PM,” he said.
Venkataramanan said his immediate priority was to make Tamil Nadu transparent and corruption-free. If necessary, he added, he would seek the guidance of Vijay and TVK general secretary N Anand before considering extending the model to other States.