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Central government need not resign, says Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi today said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government at the Centre need not resign, though the outcome of the just-concluded assembly elections in four states was a verdict against the Centre.

Talking to the media in Madras, he said the coalition partners' pressures on the government, which made a mockery of stability, the BJP's attempts to push through its communal agenda and its failure to contain spiralling price rise had led to the party's rout in the elections. It was enough if the BJP took corrective steps, he added.

Karunanidhi said people had always voted differently in assembly and Lok Sabha elections. It was not fair to demand the resignation of a state government if it performed badly in a Lok Sabha poll, and the Centre, if it lost the assembly elections.

This was the stand his government had taken when the DMK-led front got only 10 seats in the February-March Lok Sabha elections, and there were demands from certain quarters for its resignation, he pointed out.

"The same logic applies now and the party cannot adopt a different yardstick with regard to the BJP," he added.

UNI

Assembly Election '98

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