1 week Ago
Chennai: A day after AIADMK and BJP struck a deal for the 2026 assembly election, DMK president and chief minister M K Stalin said the alliance was doomed. Accusing AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami of mortgaging AIADMK fearing searches by enforcement agencies, Stalin said he would try to mortgage Tamil Nadu's interests as well. "AIADMK-BJP alliance is doomed to fail," Stalin said, pointing to their earlier electoral defeats.
In a statement, Stalin questioned Union home minister Amit Shah's stand on corruption given his alliance with AIADMK, recalling former CM J Jayalalithaa's imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case. "People know corruption is the very basis of the AIADMK-BJP alliance," Stalin said, taking a dig at Shah for "reforging the same failed alliance". The press conference held by the Union minister during his visit to Chennai on Friday was "unworthy of the constitutional post he holds", Stalin said.
He accused BJP of using a strategy to suppress Tamil language and culture, obstruct Tamil progress, and diminish state rights through delimitation. The BJP is using intimidation against AIADMK leadership to achieve these aims. "Whether the BJP comes alone or with partners, people of TN are ready to teach them a fitting lesson.
People will give an appropriate response to the traitorous group that kneels in Delhi without self-respect and tries to mortgage TN," he said. On the AIADMK's opposition to NEET, Hindi imposition, the three-language policy, and the Waqf Act, Stalin said Amit Shah neither addressed these issues nor allowed Palaniswami to speak on them during the alliance announcement in Chennai. He said the DMK was a defender of state rights, linguistic rights, and Tamil culture, in contrast to the BJP-AIADMK alliance, which was driven by a desire for power.
"People have not forgotten that Edappadi Palaniswami, with his thirst for power, mortgaged TN's self-respect and rights to Delhi and ruined the state," the DMK leader said. Highlighting the ongoing CBI investigations into NEET malpractices in five states, and suicides by NEET aspirants in TN and Bihar, Stalin challenged Amit Shah's claim that opposition to NEET was a diversionary tactic. He rejected Shah's allegation of law-and-order breakdown in TN, comparing the state's situation to BJP-governed Manipur.
"The Union minister who failed to restore peace there now seeks to disturb peace in a peaceful state like TN," Stalin said, citing Union govt data indicating TN's progress across various sectors..
