In Delhi for Niti Aayog, CM Stalin seeks PM Modi’s time

CHENNAI: In a significant departure from his political stance in recent years, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday left for the national capital to attend the 10th Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. Ahead of the meeting, Stalin also called on Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi at the latter's residence. He stopped at AIIMS to meet Dr Parameswaran, one of the tourists from Tamil Nadu who was injured in the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

Earlier in the day, Stalin was offered a grand reception at the Delhi Airport by his party treasurer TR Baalu among the DMK Parliamentarians, unmindful of the criticism levelled by the AIADMK-led opposition, which has been linking his two-day Delhi visit to the just stayed ED probe into the Tasmac scam.

Highly placed government sources disclosed that Stalin, who will be attending the Niti Aayog meeting after boycotting the same in the last three years, has sought time, like a few of his counterparts, to meet the Prime Minister during a break in Saturday's meeting. The chief minister is likely to submit a memorandum to the PM, just as he did during the previous meetings.

Stalin is likely to make a case for greater financial autonomy of states and present his wish list to the Union at the meeting two days after his government moved the Supreme Court for the release of Rs 2,291 crore Samagraha Siksha scheme funds withheld for the state by the BJP regime for not subscribing to the National Education Policy.

DMK insiders privy to the CM's Delhi trip reasoned that the meeting would help offset criticism from a section of the polity that the DMK regime was only being confrontational instead of securing the interests of the state.

Also, it will reassert DMK's position as the champion of state rights, more so against the backdrop of securing a historic verdict in the Tamil Nadu governors case from the Supreme Court, which also censured the Enforcement Directorate's probe in to the Tasmac case, an issue used by the opposition as a political ammunition till yesterday.

Wary of the critique of Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami who called it a "son-saving" visit to meet the Central powers, Stalin demonstrated his commitment to the INDIA bloc and bonhomie with the Gandhis of ally Congress by sharing a friendly message in public.

Posting a photograph of him with the Gandhi's on his 'X' handle, Stalin said, "There's a special warmth in every meeting with Madam Tmt. Sonia Gandhi and dear brother @RahulGandhi at their Delhi residence. It never feels like a visit; it truly feels like being with family."

Stalin is understood to have seized the opportunity to urge the Gandhis to get their party chief ministers to back him in the Tamil Nadu governor's case, more so in the aftermath of the Union government forwarding a Presidential Reference to the apex court in the case.

The chief minister, accompanied by state PWD minister EV Velu, also inspected the ongoing construction works at the Vaigai Tamil Nadu House in Chanakyapuri in the national capital.