COIMBATORE: “All your valuable lands will no longer be yours if the DMK comes back to power. They would all go into the hands of DMK men,” Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami cautioned the public while addressing a massive gathering in Coimbatore on Saturday. Palaniswami is on a two-day election campaign in the city.
He said that 13 former DMK ministers are facing corruption charges against them. “Their government also has a history of being dissolved due to corruption. It is, hence, ironic that DMK chief MK Stalin met with the Governor and submitted a report, with baseless allegations against AIADMK ministers,” said the Chief Minister.
He added that Stalin, in his report, had mentioned that there was misappropriation of Rs 450 crore in the implementation of Tirunelveli-Tenkasi road project. However, in reality, the tender process had been cancelled and a new tender was yet to be floated, Palaniswami said, adding: “I leave it to you to judge Stalin’s honesty.”
The CM also challenged Stalin to face him in an open debate on the corruption charges against the government. Listing out the AIADMK government’s achievements in the past five years, he said that he did not indulge in levelling baseless charges like Stalin, instead had let his work do the talking.
‘Despite having many MPs, DMK did nothing for people’
Some of the achievements highlighted by the Chief Minister include maintenance of law and order in the State, industrial and infrastructure developments, implementation of horizontal reservation for government school students in medical admission, surplus electricity production in the State, efficient management of drinking water supply and better management of Covid-19.
‘You were cheated in 2019’
During his campaign at Selvapuram, the CM said, “You were cheated during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Despite having a majority of MPs in the Parliament, they did nothing for the people. Despite Stalin holding the municipal administration portfolio during the DMK regime, they did not get any awards due to the lack of governance.”
Palaniswami also pointed out that his government had won awards from the Centre. Later in the day, the Chief Minister addressed another gathering at Kuniyamuthur, where he accused Stalin of playing dynasty politics. He elaborated on how he became the Chief Minister of the State from being a cadre-level person, and made an appeal to the public to put an end to DMK’s dynasty politics.
EPS challenges Stalin to debate
CM Palaniswami challenged Stalin to face him in an open debate on the corruption charges against the government