Cauvery row: TN minister claims Karnataka CM, DMK share ties beyond politics
Tamil Nadu Minister for Law and Energy Resources R. Nirmalkumar on Sunday (August 2, 2026) alleged that Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and the family of DMK president M.K. Stalin share a cordial relationship that extends beyond politics. Speaking to journalists at Chennai Airport, the Minister claimed that Mr. Shivakumar would prefer the DMK to return to power and would be more inclined to listen to the DMK leader's family than to the Congress leadership.
Mr. Nirmalkumar's remarks came in response to Mr. Stalin's statement that Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, in attempting to go it alone on the Cauvery issue, had been left isolated. The Karnataka Chief Minister had convened an all-party meeting on Sunday to discuss the Cauvery issue.
Referring to developments over the past week, Mr. Nirmalkumar alleged, “The DMK was articulating what Mr. Shivakumar wanted to say, while Mr. Shivakumar was saying what the DMK wanted to convey.”
His statement comes a day after he announced that the Tamil Nadu government would move the Supreme Court on Monday (August 3, 2026) on the Cauvery issue to safeguard the rights of the people of the State.
The Minister also recalled that when J. Jayalalithaa was the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, former DMK president M. Karunanidhi had exerted pressure on Karnataka not to release Cauvery water, saying that doing so would have given credit to her.
Mr. Nirmalkumar said that after several rounds of discussions on the Cauvery issue, Mr. Vijay decided to move the Supreme Court, and the Tamil Nadu government had initiated the required legal process. In this context, he alleged that the DMK had hurriedly filed a separate petition before the Supreme Court.
He argued that multiple petitions filed on behalf of the same State before the Supreme Court would create confusion and affect the State's rights. He also questioned how many petitions the DMK had filed on the Cauvery issue during the past five years.
Further, Mr. Nirmalkumar said that while the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa had taken firm decisions on the Cauvery issue, the party now had been “acting on the advice of the Bharatiya Janata Party.”
The Minister stated that Mr. Vijay had made every effort to arrive at an amicable solution to the Cauvery issue. However, he alleged that “the DMK, by joining hands with Mr. Shivakumar, had continuously attempted to create obstacles.”
