Like in Bihar, people will vote for us: CM

Dismissing the possibility of the 2G spectrum scandal impacting negatively on his party's electoral prospects in Tamil Nadu, chief minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi has claimed that the voters in the state would emulate the people of Bihar in brushing aside corruption charges against the incumbent party and return the DMK to power.

"The opposition parties are hoping that the spectrum issue would have a big impact on the assembly elections, but their wish will not be fulfilled. For instance, the opposition in Bihar stalled the assembly by levelling corruption charges involving Rs 1,500 crore against the chief minister ( Nitish Kumar), but in the elections, the people were very generous with their votes in his favour," Karunanidhi said in an interview to Tamil journal.
The chief minister said the people would certainly back his party's good governance. "All sections of the people are aware that we have implemented several schemes aimed at their uplift and welfare," he said.
He was also confident that the spectrum issue would not divide the DMK-Congress alliance in any way. "Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari has made this clear by saying the CBI searches will not affect the ties between the parties and that the DMK-Congress alliance is strong."
Attempts to isolate the DMK using the spectrum controversy would fail, he said and reiterated that the party would think of taking action against Raja only if he was proved guilty of the charges but it would not abandon him for the present. "I'm also aware that a few people are wishing that he will be sidelined by the party," he said.
To a question on the implications of some Congress leaders repeatedly saying their party would come to power, he played down the significance of such remarks, saying there was nothing wrong in a party campaigning that it would come to power. They are only saying Congress will win, but they don't claim the DMK will lose. The alliance will not be weakened by such a campaign," Karunanidhi said.
He also said the rise in prices of essential commodities and building material would not adversely affect the party's election prospects as the people knew that it had done all it could to hold the price line. And that it had sought to insulate the common man from the price spiral by a series of measures.