Narrow miss for DMK in capturing power: Karunanidhi

Citing electoral statistics, DMK chief Karunanidhi today said AIADMK has retained power in Tamil Nadu by a margin of just 1.1 vote percentage and his party missed a clear victory by a narrow gap.
He said his party would function as a constructive Opposition.
Referring to total votes polled for AIADMK and DMK and respective allies, he said the ruling party had got only 4,41,646 votes more than his party and said the opportunity to govern was missed narrowly.
"While AIADMK and allies polled 1,76,17,060 votes, DMK and its allies got 1,71,75,374. That is, AIADMK has got the opportunity to form government by a margin of 1.1 per cent and it is the truth," he said in a statement.

Citing electoral statistics, including vote share and contested vote share of his party and AIADMK, he said "there was only a very small gap in touching pinnacle of victory."
He also referred to a report published in an English daily which said DMK was ahead of AIADMK in contested vote share.

He said in 172 constituencies where there was a direct fight between AIADMK and DMK, his party emerged victorious in 89 seats and AIADMK won 83 seats.
However, he said, AIADMK won in 51 out of the 60 seats contested by the allies of DMK including the Congress and IUML.

"I am saying this only to show that people came forward to support DMK and not for blaming the allies," he said.
The nonagenarian leader, however, said his party would function as a robust Opposition given the historic huge numbers in the annals of Tamil Nadu assembly history.
"DMK has got the opportunity to function as a robust opposition with a never before seen strength in the history of Tamil Nadu," he said.
(reopens MDS3)
Meanwhile, in Puducherry, Chief Minister V
Narayanasamy today said the Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly should have conceded the demand of the Opposition for a secret ballot during the trust vote, on February 18.

In his address to the DMK cadres here, he said, "It is the duty and responsibility of the Speaker to concede the plea."
Narayanasamy noted that as a member of Parliament for more than two-and-half decades he had seen that whenever the Opposition urged that secret ballot be taken up to test majority of the government, it was sanctioned without delay.
"When the Opposition DMK and Congress and their alliance parties in Tamil Nadu Assembly persisted in their demand that secret ballot be taken up, it was not conceded by the Speaker and by thisact the House witnessed mayhem of democracy," he said.

The Chief Minister condemned the alleged manhandling of DMK leader MK Stalin and eviction of all the DMK members from the House.
"This act deserves to be condemned in strongest terms and cannot be brooked in parliamentary democracy," he said.
Chief Minister claimed that the present government headed by Edappadi Palaniswami had come to power "without the people's mandate and there was a growing dissatisfaction among the people against the government which cannot be ignored."
Congress would always stand by the DMK in its protest against the "undemocraticstyle of functioning of the present AIADMK rule in the neighbouring State," he added.

Convenor of the local unit of DMK R Siva MLA presided over the fast held in the vicinity of the municipal bus terminus here.
DMK, which has two members in the Puducherry Assembly is an alliance partner of the Congress and is supporting the government from outside.