Cheering supporters ring Karunanidhi at Chennai airport on Sunday. (PTI)

Chennai, May 23: M. Karunanidhi today sought more representation in the Union cabinet for Tamil Nadu despite the induction of 12 ministers, including seven from the DMK, from the state.

The DMK chief, accorded a hero’s welcome by party cadre on his return from Delhi, said he was happy at the all-time high number of ministerial berths allotted to the DMK. He would be happier, however, if “one or two MPs from south Tamil Nadu” were also inducted to give representation to the southern districts.

Karunanidhi expressed hope that the 12 ministers from Tamil Nadu would soon meet to pool their talent and experience and chalk out a list of priorities “that can bring good to the state”.

He sounded confident that such a large representation would be more useful for the state than the DMK’s representation in earlier central governments.

Explaining the circumstances which made him decide to join the Congress-led coalition, Karunanidhi said Sonia Gandhi had not assured him anything in return for the DMK’s participation in government.

Of course, “she had appealed to me thrice personally to reconsider our decision, besides the Left party leaders, including Harkishen Singh Surjeet and A.B. Bardhan, and former Prime Minister V.P. Singh”, said the DMK leader.

Karunanidhi dismissed a report that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had raised the citizenship question when Sonia first met him for a preliminary discussion. He said Rashtrapati Bhavan had itself denied the report.

“Sonia Gandhi’s decision to decline the Prime Minister’s post was a great piece of sacrifice; for more than her occupying the chair, she had realised that national interests were paramount,” he said. “Her action is highly commendable and it has deprived those (BJP) who sought to make her foreign origin an issue of a potent weapon.”

He said the DMK would not ask the central government to invoke Article 356 to dismiss the ADMK regime in Tamil Nadu. But the DMK would “collect evidence to teach the arrogant Jayalalithaa regime a lesson”.

On the DMK’s priorities in the common minimum programme, Karunanidhi was upbeat about the revocation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. “You will soon hear good news on this front,” he said.

The declaration of Tamil as a classical language, expediting the implementation of the Sethu Samudram project and taking up of the national rivers inter-link project were among the key issues emphasised by the DMK for inclusion in the common minimum programme, he said.

There was confusion at Chennai airport earlier after Karunanidhi and his party colleagues arrived from Delhi. Black Cat commandos had a tough time escorting the DMK chief to his car as the crowds surged for a glimpse of him.

Jaya greets PM

Casting aside her poll defeat, Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa today greeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Please accept my greetings and good wishes on your being sworn in as the Prime Minister of India,” she wrote in a letter to Singh. “It is the hope of the nation that you will provide the mature and wise leadership necessary to take India forward on the path of progress, prosperity and peace.”