COIMBATORE/KRISHNAGIRI: Coming in the defence of his ally, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh condemned A Raja for his alleged remarks against the former. Raja earlier explained the context of his statement and apologised to the Chief Minister, if he had hurt his sentiments.
Speaking at an election rally in Udhagamandalam on Wednesday, Singh said Raja’s statements were an insult to women across the State. He added that respectful a discourse was essential to a healthy democracy. Interestingly, Singh’s party has been attracting criticism from elsewhere in the country for its alleged casual sexism in the remarks made against TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
“BJP and AIADMK stand for equality,” he said. “We do not believe in special treatment for any caste, creed, or religion,” he said, adding that both the governments were working to develop to TN. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to visit the civil-war affected area of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, and that India had built 27,000 new houses for Sri Lankan Tamils, left homeless after war. He made no reference to India abstaining from UN Human Rights Council vote on atrocities in the island country, held earlier this month. “We have also brought back 1,600 Tamil fishermen who were detained and also released 300 boats which were impounded by Lankan navy,” he noted.
In Krishnagiri, the Defence Minister said BJP would implement total prohibition if voted to power. He then promised to generate 50 lakh job opportunities in both government and private sectors in Tamil Nadu, and provide drinking water supply to every household by 2024. Similarly, Singh said Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam are striving hard to implement developmental works mooted by Modi.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also campaigned in Coimbatore on Wednesday. He appealed to the voters to teach a befitting lesson to the DMK-Congress alliance. He gave numerous examples against the Opposition parties indulging in corruption, including Common Wealth games scam, 2G scam and coal allocation scam. He was addressing the public meeting organised to gather support for the BJP’s Coimbatore South candidate Vanathi Srinivasan on Wednesday.
Expressing confidence over the AIADMK-BJP alliance sweeping the majority in the ensuing poll, Yogi Adityanath said the ally will pull the State on to the path of development. He said, “The vision of Narendra Modi was always on the development of Tamil Nadu, both industrially and economically even during the pandemic. The AIADMK-BJP coalition would work as the ‘double engine’ and pull the state to the development phase. If voted to power, the state would get more funds for development activities.”