Cauvery issue: DMK urges Tamil Nadu governor to facilitate meeting with PM Modi

DMK-led opposition on Friday requested Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit to facilitate a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Cauvery issue.

DMK working president M K Stalin on Friday said following a request, Purohit assured opposition leaders that he would make efforts for facilitating a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Cauvery issue.

Opposition party leaders called on the governor at the Raj Bhavan here and requested him to urge Modi to take immediate steps to form the Cauvery Management Board.

Stalin said he informed the governor that although it was decided at a recent government held all party meeting to meet Modi on exerting pressure to form the CMB, it has not happened.

A resolution also was passed in the Assembly on the Cauvery issue to lead a delegation of all parties and farmers to meet the prime minister to mount pressure, he said.

"We asked him (Purohit) if he can get us an opportunity (to meet PM Modi) and the governor assured us that he will make efforts for it," Stalin told reporters after meeting Purohit.

The DMK leader said the governor told them that he understood their sensitivities.

A war of words has ensued in the recent past between DMK and AIADMK over meeting the prime minister.

DMK has alleged that AIADMK was "not even able to facilitate a meeting with PM Modi," on the Cauvery issue.

Reacting to Stalin seeking governor's intervention for facilitating a meet with Modi, senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries minister D Jayakumar said it was "opportunism". He said it was opportunism because on the one hand DMK was talking of state's autonomy and opposing Purohit's review visit to districts and on the other hand seeking his intervention.

Stalin was indulging only in "tall talk", the minister said and asked why DMK MLAs and Rajya Sabha MPs were not resigning over the Cauvery issue.

Stalin, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said he and other opposition party leaders requested Purohit to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take full-fleged steps for immediate constitution of the CMB.

Such steps should be taken immediately without waiting till the May 3 time frame given by the Supreme Court, he said.

After concluding his "Cauvery Rights Retrieval Yatra" at Cuddalore yesterday, Stalin arrived at the Raj Bhavan here, flanked by leaders including Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Su Thirunavukkarasar and VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan.

State secretaries of CPI(M) and CPI, K Balakrishnan and R Mutharasan respectively, Dravidar Kazhagam chief K Veeramani, and senior DMK leader Duraimurugan too accompanied Stalin.

Stalin had started his Cauvery rally on April 7 from Mukkombu in Tiruchirappalli district.

Another DMK-led rally on the same issue began from April 9 in Ariyalur.Both the rallies, in which opposition parties including the Congress, Left and VCK took part, converged at Cuddalore on Thursday.