Tamil Nadu elections: PMK says it will give Dy Chief Minister post to BJP

A day after BJP announced that the NDA's chief ministerial candidate need not necessarily be from its ranks, PMK on Saturday said it would give the deputy chief minister's post to the saffron outfit if the party-led coalition came to power in the state.

"We will give, if BJP seeks deputy CM's post, we will give it to them," PMK chief Dr S Ramadoss. He was asked if his party was ready to share power if BJP accepts Anbumani Ramadoss as the chief ministerial candidate.

"Giving the post of deputy chief minister means only giving a share in power, we have been saying from the beginning that we are ready to share power," he told reporters after visiting flood-hit areas in Chennai.

BJP national secretary Muralidhar Rao had on Friday said, "BJP has not decided that as a leader of NDA, we should indispensably have the chief ministerial (aspirant) position with us," adding his party was "flexible" so that it could be a broadbased front.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan said in Madurai that he was confident that DMDK, which is being wooed by others, would "continue to be in the NDA front" in the same way that the Vijayakanth-led party had fought last year's Lok Sabha elections alongside his party.

DMDK, PMK and MDMK were the prominent allies of BJP during last year's Lok Sabha elections. While MDMK snapped ties with the BJP in December last, PMK asserted that its ties with the saffron party were only at the central level.