THANJAVUR/TIRUPUR/COIMBATORE: “This time, it is not just a contest for power. Its a battle for safeguarding our State’s self respect,” DMK chief MK Stalin said at Orathanadu on Friday. He attended campaign meetings for DMK candidates M Ramachandran (Orathanadu), TKG Neelamegam (Thanjavur), Annadurai (Pattukkottai), Ashokkumar (Peravurani), Govi Chezhian (Tiruvidaimarudur), G Anbazhagan (Kumbakonam) and M H Jawahirullah (Papanasam) of MMK on the day.
“As Tamil Nadu was nurtured by thoughts of Periyar, Annadurai and M Karunanidhi, our opposition will not succeed. The Secular Progressive Front needs to be voted to power so that we retrieve and safeguard our State’s rights. It was Karunanidhi who safeguarded Tamil Nadu’s right over Cauvery water and the present State Government had ceded that right by letting Cauvery Water Management Board to be administered by the Union Jal Sakthi Ministry,” the DMK leader said. Recalling a rally he undertook along with leaders of alliance parties from Mukkombu to Cuddalore in 2018 demanding the Union Government to constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB), Stalin promised that he would continue to fight for the State’s rights.
Sharpening his attack on Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Stalin remarked that if Palaniswami was a true farmer, he should have opposed the three contentious farm laws when they were tabled in the Parliament. “Over hundred farmers lost lives in the ongoing protests in Delhi. But our CM refrains from taking a respectable stand. The DMK has promised to pass a resolution in the Assembly against the farm laws, create a separate budget for agriculture, increase per quintal paddy procurement price to `2,500 and per tonne cane procurement price to `4,000. We will also create a new district with Kumbakonam as the headquarters,” he added.
‘Wear masks, take vaccine’
During a political rally at CDC corner along Kangeyam Road in Tirupur city, Stalin appealed to the people to continue wearing masks and maintain social distancing. “There is information that a second wave of Covid infection is upon us. I myself have taken the vaccine and advise all of you to do the same. I am surprised that none of the candidates for constituencies in Tiruppur district are wearing masks. When the pandemic was in the initial phase, I raised the issue. But our CM then claimed that Tamil Nadu is safe and no one even needed to wear mask. The very next day, he stepped inside the Legislative Assembly wearing a mask,” Stalin added.
Concluding the meeting, the DMK leader said, “If you vote for an AIADMK candidate, that person may remain in that party, but will only be able to function as a BJP MLA. The DMK did not just stage agitations against the NRC and CAA, we collected over 2 crore signatures of people who opposed the move and submitted them to the Indian President.”