Chief Minister and AIADMK co-coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday accused DMK president M.K. Stalin of trying to hoodwink the people by making tall claims to come to power.
He was addressing a meeting organised to pay homage to the Tamil martyrs, marking the anniversary of the anti-Hindi agitation, at Ulundurpet in Kallakurichi district.
Mr. Palaniswami said Mr. Stalin had conducted Gram Sabha meetings before the 2019 Lok Sabha election and received petitions. “People are now keen on knowing what had happened to the petitions the DMK had received from people with the promise to redress their grievances. To whom did he submit the petitions or did he take any step to redress their grievances?” he asked, questioning the very purpose of these meetings.
Mr. Palaniswami said the State government would soon roll out a special public grievances redress system. A dry run of the system was now under way. As the details appeared to have leaked during the trial, the DMK leader copied the idea.
The Chief Minister said that Mr. Stalin was indulging in wishful thinking that the DMK would return to power. “Initially Mr. Stalin had said his party would win in all 234 constituencies. A few days later, he said it would win 200 seats. The DMK president would bring the number further down in the coming days, and the party would be left with a mere 34 seats,” he said.
He asked the DMK MPs what they had done for the development of the State. “What issues of Tamil Nadu had they highlighted in Parliament?” he asked.
The DMK was not a political party but a corporate company, with Mr. Stalin playing the role of chairman and other members of his family that of board members, he said.
