Veteran AIADMK leader and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambithurai has stated that there was no need for the AIADMK MPs to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for setting up the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

“We have been demanding the setting up of a CMB in the Prime Minister’s presence in Parliament.  We have been stalling the proceedings of both the Houses of Parliament demanding justice to the people and farmers of Tamil Nadu’s Delta Districts.  The purpose of our protest is very well known to all and there is no need to meet the Prime Minister exclusive to explain our purpose.

“No Union Minister has so far spoken to me on this issue; if anyone says such a meeting occurred, it would only be termed as ‘lie’.  I’m an MP belonging not to the ruling BJP at the Centre but to an opposition party and am also holding the post of Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha.  How and why should I resign over the issue?

“I also don’t understand the call made in certain quarters asking all the 50 MPs of the AIADMK to resign from their posts.  We have been elected by the people to serve them for five years; can anybody guarantee the setting up of the CMB if we quit our posts?  We are ready to do so if such a guarantee is given,” Thambithurai said while talking to newsmen in New Delhi yesterday.