Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the M K Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government in Tamil Nadu of promoting "corruption, mafia and crime."
Addressing the NDA's first political rally ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, at Maduranthakam near Chennai, Modi alleged that the DMK government had nothing to do with democracy or accountability and accused it of functioning for only "one family."
"Tamil Nadu now has a government that has nothing to do with democracy and accountability. The DMK government is only serving one family. If someone has to rise within the party, they only have three or four routes: dynasty, corruption, abusing women or abusing our culture," the PM alleged.
Even a child in TN knows how much corruption is happening and reaches whose pockets, he said.
Dubbing the DMK as "CMC" government, Modi said it stood for "Corruption, Mafia, and Crime."
"There have been allegations of people in the DMK being hand-in-glove with the drug mafia. Every vote you cast in favour of the NDA will be a vote to free Tamil Nadu of the drug menace," he said.
He claimed that the people of Tamil Nadu has made up their mind to uproot the DMK government and asserted that a BJP-NDA government would be formed in the state after the 2026 polls.
PM Modi arrived in Chennai after addressing a similar rally at Thiruvananthapuram earlier today, and was received at the airport by Governor R N Ravi, state minister T M Anbarasan, Chief Secretary N Muruganandam among other officials.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran, and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss were among the NDA leaders present at the dais.
Interestingly, BJP's state vice president and the party's popular leader K Annamalai, was missing from the dais.
Speaking at the rally, AIADMK's Edappadi K Palaniswami said the NDA will upset the electoral prospects of the DMK in the upcoming polls.
"We will win 210 Assembly seats, and send the DMK packing home," the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly said.
He also accused the TN government of corruption.
"The DMK regime's only achievement during its four-and-a-half years rule is corruption...Stalin made his son Udhayanidhi Deputy Chief Minister and wants him to become chief minister," he alleged.
Meanwhile, AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran who spoke at the rally said that he joined the alliance wholeheartedly and not under "coercion."
Though he may have differences with the AIADMK leadership, he said he did not want these to come in the way of public welfare or efforts to end the DMK rule in the state.
"We set aside our differences and wholeheartedly joined the NDA to ensure that the AIADMK-led alliance defeats the DMK and establishes the rule of Amma (former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa). We were not under any coercion to rejoin the NDA," he said.