CHENNAI: Launching his campaign in Madurantakam on Thursday, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami urged the voters to punish Maragatham Kumaravel so severely that no one would dare to repeat such an act in the future. He was referring to Maragatham switching her allegiance to TVK after winning from the constituency on an AIADMK ticket in the Assembly election held in April.
The AIADMK chief alleged her decision is the result of “horse-trading” and urged the voters to teach such “traitors” a lesson and give them appropriate punishment through the election.
Campaigning for AIADMK candidate Kanitha Sampath, Palaniswami said voters had elected Maragatham in the hope that the AIADMK would return to power. He also said the bye-election had been “forced” and said that the Communists, who had supported the TVK to come to power, are now contesting alone as they could no longer tolerate the ruling party’s “excesses.” He cited CPM state secretary P Shanmugam as saying that the election had been forced and CPI’s Veerapandian as describing it as an election deliberately brought about.
Palaniswami also said the fate of the TVK as a political party would be known only after the Supreme Court delivers its verdict in the case relating to the death of 41 people in the Karur stampede, in which the CBI is conducting an inquiry under the direction of the apex court.
Throughout his speech, Palaniswami focused on the “failure” of the TVK government. He did not criticise the DMK, but for a few issues.