Congress, IUML to attend DMK-led meet on Cauvery

However, the BJP had already ruled out its presence even if the DMK makes a call for such a meeting. Stalin said that the October 25 meeting was being held following appeals from various quarters, including the delta farmers and the public, to ‘exert serial pressure’ on the Cauvery issue. 

“The meeting has been convened (under him) as Opposition Leader at Anna Arivalayam the DMK headquarters – on October 25 at 10.30 am,” Stalin said in his letter to different parties. He said that in the Supreme Court, the issue of constitution of Cauvery Management Board (CMB) has taken a ‘back seat’ with the focus now shifting to maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT). 

Further, the prospects of the current samba in the delta region was also under question due to the low storage at Mettur dam, he said. Even if Karnataka fully complied with the latest Supreme Court order, asking it to release 2,000 cusecs per day, the prospects of samba did not look bright, Stalin said. 

Stalin had earlier this month said that the DMK, which had been repeatedly urging the Tamil Nadu government to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the Cauvery issue, had said his party will conduct such a meeting if the ruling AIADMK failed to do so. Meanwhile, DMK’s allies, Congress and IUML, expressed their support for the meeting. TNCC president Su Thirunavukkarasar said that he would participate in the meeting. 

BJP’s state unit, which has been critical of both the Congress and the DMK on the Cauvery issue, had already ruled out its participation if the latter convened an all-party meeting. State unit President Tamilisai Soundararajan had earlier said her party would participate only in a government convened all-party meeting as it was not DMK’s responsibility to do so.