Vijay meets Athawale, triggering speculations
What happened? Triggering a wide range of speculations in political circles, Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale called on Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay at the Secretariat on Friday, which was officially described as a ‘courtesy call’.
Ahead of the assembly elections, the chief of the Republican Party of India said that Vijay may join the NDA after the polls, despite the TVK’s stance that they see the BJP as the arch-enemy.
Now that Athawale has no major known events in Chennai, there were speculations that he was meeting Vijay with the aim of convincing him to support the Limitation Bill and the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Speaking to the media, Athawale said he would discuss the issues of the Dalit community in Tamil Nadu with the Prime Minister and expressed confidence that the Delimitation and Women’s Reservation Bills would be passed in Parliament.
He said that atrocities against Dalits were increasing in Tamil Nadu and poor Dalits should be given five acres of land to end poverty.
In the meeting, which lasted about twenty minutes, Athawale discussed the caste-based census planned by the state government and also socio-economic development of the Scheduled Caste, sources said.
The meeting with the national Dalit leader could also be interpreted as a recognition of Vijay as a friend of Dalits, as TVK has presented itself as a party concerned with Dalit rights and Dalit emancipation by repeatedly stating that the Tamil Nadu Cabinet has eight ministers, seven of whom are from TVK, for the first time in its history.
