Guv dials Stalin; DMK may attend reception today

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK is most likely to attend the ‘At Home’ reception to be hosted by Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi at Raj Bhavan on Republic Day.

It has been reliably learnt that Governor Ravi on Wednesday invited Chief Minister MK Stalin for the reception personally over phone.

The Governor has also got one of his special secretaries to hand over the invitation to the Chief Minister in person the same day, senior government sources disclosed.

However, uncertainty remains over whether the CM would attend or depute a couple of his senior Ministers for the reception, which would be boycotted by almost all allies of the ruling DMK. While the VCK led Thol Thirumavalavan and Left parties have confirmed the boycott, a senior Congress legislator told DT Next that they would also abstain from the reception.

Participation of the DMK, if it happens, could be a significant digression from the ruling party’s stand of boycotting the incumbent Governor for continuously confronting with the government and delaying assent to several Bills adopted by the state Assembly. The DMK had abstained from a similar tea party hosted by the Governor on Pongal over a week ago in protest of his “Tamizhagam – Tamil Nadu” statement and printing Tamizhagam instead of Tamil Nadu in the official Pongal party invitation.

The DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance was up in arms against the Governor for making a controversial statement about the state’s name, which prompted an eventual clarification from Raj Bhavan that the Governor did not suggest an alternative name for the state, but had onlyhighlighted the historicity of the name.