Palaniswami does not criticise BJP, claim on severing ties with Saffron party a drama, says Stalin

DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday launched a tirade against AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for not even criticising the BJP while claiming to have snapped ties with that party. The ruling party chief questioned Palaniswami's commitment to the welfare of minorities and claimed the AIADMK would be defeated in the 2024 general elections as well. Stalin said the AIADMK's stand that it had walked out of the alliance with the BJP was a 'drama,' marked by cunningness as the saffron party is not being targeted.

Palaniswami, state Leader of Opposition was being made to adopt such a stand and all such things would get exposed ahead of the the Lok Sabha polls slated next year. Addressing the DMK's booth agents meet here for northern Tamil Nadu, Stalin said that since the AIADMK would not be able to get back even its 'deposit' in polls if it remained in the BJP's fold, its top leader was staging a 'drama' by claiming to have snapped ties with the Saffron party. Against the backdrop of Palaniswami's aggressive pro-minorities pitch after severing ties with the BJP, Stalin said the AIADMK had even supported Centre's measures like the Citizenship Amendment Act earlier and backed its erstwhile ally.

However, Palaniswami was now claiming to have commitment towards the welfare of minorities. Also, even without criticising the BJP, Palaniswami now affirmed to lead a separate coalition, which was against the ruling party at the Centre. It is a cunning 'drama,' and he is being made to do so and it would get exposed in the run up to the Parliamentary election, Stalin said. The nation would rise as the best country in the world when the social justice-led Dravidian model of governance is implemented across the length and breadth of India, he said. Recalling incidents during the AIADMK regime such as the massive agitation in Thoothukudi against the Sterlite plant and the police firing in which 13 persons died, he said Palaniswami is under a mistaken impression that people would have forgotten such issues.

Palaniswami-led AIADMK was defeated in all the polls such as local body elections held in the past five years and his party would be trounced in the 2024 as well, Stalin asserted. The DMK chief said the booth agents should stay up-to-date on the party-led regime's welfare schemes and meet the local people and apprise them of such initiatives and the delivery of good governance by the Dravidian model government. Underscoring schemes such as the Rs 1,000 monthly financial assistance for women (Kalaignar Scheme for Right of Women), breakfast for school children and fare-free travel in state-run town buses, the CM said in one way or the other, every single family has been benefitted by such plans and people have reposed their faith on the government.

The recently launched payout plan for women has made even those who opposed the government to praise it and this has frightened the DMK's rivals. Hitting out Palaniswami for his 'blatant lie' that the DMK regime has not implemented new schemes and it was only taking forward the initiatives of the previous AIADMK government, Stalin listed a slew of schemes including the Rs 1,000 assistance to women and asked if these were brought in by the opposition party.

He wondered if aspirants belonging to all castes were appointed as priests in temples in the AIADMK regime led by Palaniswami. Also, he pointed to power connections to 2 lakh farmers and consecration ceremonies in as many as 1,000 temples in the Dravidian model regime and wanted the leader of opposition to take a look at such initiatives. Accusing the AIADMK chief as a 'fake' farmer who supported the three earlier central farm laws, Stalin asked how such a person would be aware of the state government's schemes.