The Congress would stand by the decision taken by the Tamil Nadu government in the Mekedatu dam row, said senior leader and former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram here on Thursday.

Speaking to media persons, he said that in the past, the Congress party here had stood by the decisions taken by the then governments on the Cauvery river water disputes. Be it the DMK or the AIADMK, whoever was in power in the past. Thus, in the present context too, the Congress would go by the State government’s decision.

The Karnataka government had expressed its intention to build the dam across Mekedatu. This has irked the farmers’ associations and political parties in Tamil Nadu had opposed it vehemently.

He said that he visited Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay at the Secretariat and greeted him on his victory. “No body had guessed that the TVK would poll such a huge percentage of votes in the recently concluded election. The results showed they had secured 35 %, which was remarkable. People in the urban constituencies and in urbanised segments had voted for the TVK in a big way, the results showed”, he said and explained the reasons for Congress supporting the TVK. “If we had not stood by the TVK, the situation seemed to give room for the BJP to enter the State by imposing an emergency, which means the Governor would be at the helm of affairs. In the larger interest of preventing the Central rule, the Congress backed Mr. Vijay’s party,” he said.

Asked about the ‘achievement’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for serving as the longest PM, Mr Chidambaram said that he had in a post greeted Mr Modi for the achievement. However, he expressed surprise over the silence of the media for not clarifying about the longer tenure of Jawaharlal Nehru, who served as the Prime Minister for over 16 years without a break.

On the new government’s performance, the Congress leader said that it was too premature to assess. “We should give three/six or even more months to comment about the functioning of the government,” he said and added that a majority of the MLAs from the TVK were first timers and they should understand the public administration and the issues of the common man.

As long as the TVK was ideologically opposed to the BJP’s policies, there was nothing wrong in supporting the party, he said and clarified that the TVK had promised to be secular and protect the State’s rights. Thus, the Congress was comfortable and would be with the TVK as long as there was no deviation, he added

He expressed his condolences to the family of director Bharathirajaa, who passed away in Chennai on Wednesday.