In a sensational revelation, DMDK chief Vijayakant has alleged that he was offered bribes by AIADMK, DMK and BJP to join their poll alliance for the May 16 Tamil Nadu assembly election. In an interview to news portal The News Minute, the DMDK-People's Welfare Front-TMC combine's chief ministerial candidate said he was offered money "by BJP, AIADMK and DMK," but he chose PWF instead. "BJP even offered a CM post, but I went with PWF," he said. "I don't give importance to money. Even if they (PWF) didn't make me CM candidate, I would have joined them," he said.
Assembly Election Results
"Should I join DMK? AIADMK? Should I join these two parties who are ruining the country? I will never go. I was in alliance with one of them and I came out in three months," he said. In the 2011 assembly elections, DMDK contested in 41 constituencies as part of an AIADMK alliance and won 29 seats. But relations between the two parties soured after the 2011 polls.
Asked about the possibility of a post poll alliance with these parties, Vijayakant categorically states he "will never join DMK or AIADMK". He dismissed talk of a hung assembly, asserting that people will deliver their verdict on May 16.
"Let's wait for May 19. Should only Jayalalithaa or Karunanidhi sit in the legislative assembly?" he said, when asked about opinion polls.
Alluding to a Tamil saying, he said, "If you vote for these people (DMK and AIADMK), it is like jumping into the river riding a sand horse."
Dismissing rumours of health issues, he said, "I am fine. I am talking to you just fine. Is there anything wrong with my health? How do I manage to travel around?"
He wondered if the reporter could pose these questions [on health issues] to Jayalalithaa or Karunanidhi. "They will beat you up," he said in typical fashion.
Asked to explain his party's ideology, he said, "Employment to all, get rid of corruption completely, get rid of poverty by providing basic necessities - food, water, shelter." He wondered who else is offering all this, as they (other parties) are all corrupt.
He described the AIADMK government as "a humbug government" that "just wants to win and loot the people". Vijayakant said he preferred to contest from constituencies that had more villages. He said that people of Vridhachalam and Rishivandhiyam (where he won from earlier) wanted him to contest from there as he had not looted them or indulged in corruption.
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