MAYILADUTHURAI: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday said the ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ scheme, inaugurated by Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday, is nothing but an election gimmick by the DMK to gain votes.
Otherwise why would he (Stalin) create such a scheme just before the election and not during the entire four years the DMK was in power, Palaniswami questioned while addressing a gathering at Sirkazhi during his statewide campaign, ‘Urimaiyai Meetpom Makkalai Kaapom’. He said the DMK itself “has accepted that it has failed to mitigate people’s problems” during the last four years.
He said, “Stalin went from street-to-street, house-to-house during the election, collecting petitions from people. Now, he has initiated a scheme where people can file petitions. What happened to the petitions he collected? The DMK itself has accepted that it has failed to mitigate people’s issues.”
Responding to Stalin’s comment that the AIADMK is allying with a ‘religious party’ (the BJP), Palaniswami questioned Stalin: “How is the BJP a religious party only when it allies with the AIADMK?” He held up a photograph of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi sitting beside late BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee (former PM) when they were allies.