Dayanidhi Maran is confident that his party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, will find the money to fund the ambitious promises it made to Tamil Nadu's electorate in its poll manifesto.

The Union minister of information technology and telecommunication is currently one of the busiest men in Chennai, as his granduncle Muthuvel Karunanidhi prepares to be sworn in as chief minister on Saturday.

Speaking exclusively to rediff.com from Chennai, Maran said, "One of the biggest factors behind our win was our manifesto. People believed it. It was a people-centric manifesto. Our manifesto was the real hero of the election."

"As soon as we started the campaign," Maran said,"we could sense an anti-wave against the ruling party (the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam)."

The minister felt many political analysts had misread the popular sentiment because the media did not convey the correct picture.

"(AIADMK leader and outgoing chief minister J) Jayalalithaa somehow managed that," Maran alleged, "The moment we went into the interior parts of the state we got the clear picture."

Besides the party manifesto and the anti-AIADMK wave, Maran said there was an emotional reason for the DMK's victory. "The people wanted to give one more chance to Dr Kalingar (as Karunanidhi is respectfully referred to in the DMK). It will be his fifth term as chief minister."

And how will Karunanidhi obtain the financial resources to fund the DMK's poll promise of a free colour television and rice for Rs 2 a kilo? "Oh that is very easy!" said Maran whose family owns the Sun network, south India's dominant television company.

"There is a company called Midas which supplies liquor and gets Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 6 billion) from the exchequer. We will fund our programmes by diverting government money from such companies," he said.

Interestingly, an AIADMK source told this correspondent that the Midas company is owned by a Jayalalithaa confidante.

T V R Shenoy on Dayanidhi Maran

Maran said Vaiko, the leader of the Marulmarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam who left the DML alliance and joined hands with Jayalalitha before the election, could no longer remain within the United Progressive Alliance fold at the Centre.

"He will have to take rest now," Maran, who is being spoken of as Karunanidhi's political successor, declared. "He can't be in the government at the Centre."