Hours after he issued a veiled threat to the UPA government, DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Monday did a U-turn of sorts by denying that he ever threatened to pull out of the Congress-led government at the Centre.

Blaming media for misquoting him, Karunanidhi told news reporters that what he meant was that the DMK had not hesitated to pull out of the ministry in the past when the union government failed to address public issues. He said, “What I said is that we have walked out in the past. I did not say we will walk out now from the central government. It is a media mischief.”

With the presidential election round the corner, he said the DMK would not do anything that rocked the UPA government. “Rather, we will remain in the alliance with all the bitterness.” He said the prime minister had assured the DMK that he would look into the petrol price hike issue.

Asked whether his party would quit if there was no roll back, Karunanidhi said, “I can’t say at present as to what we will do if the hike is not rolled back. If we pull out, then there will be a crisis at the centre and communal forces will seize the opportunity. We don’t want to create such a situation.”

Earlier in the day, addressing a DMK gathering organised to protest the petrol price hike, M Karunanidhi had warned the centre that the DMK might be forced to pull out from the government if “anti-people policies” continued.