Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M Karunanidhi said today (May 24, 2004) that his party's continuation in the Manmohan Singh Ministry would depend upon the Prime Minister's decision on allotting the portfolios originally agreed upon to the DMK members.

Karunanidhi told reporters at the party headquarters in Chennai that the Prime Minister spoke to him this noon and sought 10 days time to rectify the "mistakes".

"I will be happy if the mistakes are rectified before that," he said, adding his party's stand would, however, not threaten the stability of the Ministry.

Asked whether the DMK's decision would pose any threat to the stability of the Manmohan Singh Ministry, Karunanidhi said, "No, it will not."

The DMK chief blamed a "coterie" around the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister for all that had happened. "It is better to identify the coterie and rectify the mistakes," he said.

Elaborating on the current standoff, Karunanidhi said originally it was agreed that T R Balu would be given surface transport along with shipping, while S S Palanimanickam would be given MOS for revenue and S Raghupathy would be MOS in the Home Ministry in charge of internal security and personnel, "but that was not done".

Karunanidhi said he and Congress leader Janardhan Reddy had signed an agreement on May 21 in Delhi in respect of these portfolios.

Admitting that the latest developments had caused "heartburn" for him and his party, Karunanidhi said he would be happy if the problems were solved soon.

On watching these developments, it would have been better if the party had stuck to its earlier stand of not joining the Ministry for the present, he said, adding the party joined it because of the "pressures" from Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister V P Singh and others.

"I had no other option but to yield to their pressures," he added.