Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday said he would hold discussions with his counterparts of non-BJP ruled states on taking the next course of action on the Modi government’s Presidential reference to the Supreme Court with regard to the apex court’s landmark judgment in the Governor’s case fixing timelines for governors and the President in clearing state bills.

“I will discuss with the Chief Ministers of other non-BJP ruled states to take a collective decision on this. It concerns all of us,” he said at a brief interaction with reporters in Ooty, where he is on a five-day official visit.

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Earlier yesterday, Stalin lashed out at the Modi Government’s move in going for a Presidential reference Constitution, strongly condemning it as a ‘blatant and desperate attempt to subvert the Constitutional position settled by the apex court.

According to him it is “nothing but a desperate attempt to weaken democratically elected State Governments by placing them under the control of Governors serving as agents of the Union Government. It also directly challenges the majesty of law and the authority of the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the Constitution.

He also questioned why there was any objection to prescribing time limits for Governors to act. Stalin further said the Presidential reference has exposed the fact that the Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi was acting at the behest of the BJP to undermine the people’s mandate.

“The questions raised in the reference reveal the BJP-led Union governments sinister intent to distort the Constitution’s basic distribution of powers and incapacitate State Legislatures dominated by opposition parties,” he maintained adding that it posed an existential threat to state autonomy.

The DMK’s allies, including the Congress and others, have come out in support of the Chief Minister and condemned the ‘overreach’ of the BJP-led Union Government.