VELLORE: Launching his two-day campaign in Vellore district, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK co-coordinator Edappadi Palaniswami on Saturday trained his gun on the principal opposition party DMK accusing it of releasing a bundle of poll promises that are 'unviable'.
He began the day's campaign at the Salem Kootroad in Tirupattur to seek votes for AIADMK's Tiruvannamalai Lok Sabha constituency Agri Krishnamoorthy.
“DMK's election manifesto is a bundle of lies. They are giving unviable promises to woo the voters,” he said, adding the opposition party is also indulged in 'disinformation campaign' and 'false propaganda' with an eye on votes.
“In contrast, our poll manifesto is practical, viable and can be implemented,” Palaniswami said, stressing the country needed a strong, efficient leader to protect it.
The Chief Minister, in a no-holds-barred attack on the opposition alliance, called it a medley of parties without any policy or principle, and said that the AIADMK alliance was forged on the basis of principles.
Recalling that late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had fulfilled all her poll promises, he said DMK had failed to give two-acre land for landless farmers.
“They gave a promise of giving 2 acre land. We searched at several places to ascertain whether land was given to anybody but in vain. What we came to know was that all the land were grabbed by the DMK men themselves,” the AIADMK co-coordinator ridiculed.
Under Jayalalithaa's regime, Tamil Nadu was made a power surplus state redeeming it from the acute power shortage which prevailed during the earlier DMK government, Palaniswami said.
Referring to stray incidents of DMK men assaulting shop owners in the past, he said the opposition party men did not leave anybody, be it a beautician, biriyani shop owner, paratha stall owner or mobile phone seller, without attacking them. He referred to videos being circulated widely on social media showing how DMK men assaulted traders.
He hit out on DMK men unleashing 'a reign of rowdyism' and wondered how the situation would turn out for traders if they come to power.
The Chief Minister warned that appropriate action would be taken against those responsible for the attack on the car in which late Sadiq Basha's (a close aide of former Union Minister A Raja) wife was travelling in Chennai a few days ago.
Palaniswami toured Tirupattur, Ambur and Madhanur areas seeking votes for Lok Sabha candidates Agri Krishnamoorthy (Tiruvannamalai), AC Shanmugam (Vellore) and J Jothi Ramalingaraja (Ambur Assembly segment).