CHENNAI: AIADMK organising secretary D Jayakumar charged that minister V Senthil Balaji is using his post as minister as a protecting shield and wondered how could a prisoner under judicial custody continue as a minister.
Jayakumar was answering queries from reporters on Friday. He asked, “How can a person, who is under judicial custody and given a prison inmate number, continue as a member of the cabinet? The ED has arrested him following SC directive and there is no politics in it.”
BJP slams Stalin
Meanwhile, BJP state president K Annamalai also charged that Chief Minister MK Stalin, when he was leader of the opposition, had himself demanded the dismissal of Balaji and is now adopting a different stand.
“BJP, for now, reserves its comments on the dismissal of Balaji from the council of ministers. However, we want to remind Stalin of his doublespeak. In 2018, he demanded that a minister should be sacked by the governor as there was an allegation against the person. What has changed now? The DMK’s drama wouldn’t change the fact that Balaji is an accused and is under arrest!” Annamalai tweeted.