COIMBATORE: In a tongue-in-cheek statement, AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said it seems expelled leader of the party O Panneerselvam has joined the DMK. He was reacting to newspersons’ query on Panneerselvam’s earlier statement that AIADMK MLAs had walked out of the state assembly on Saturday without understanding the issue related to the name change of Tamil Nadu Fisheries University.
Talking to reporters at Coimbatore International Airport, Palaniswami said OPS had displayed vehemence and temper while he was in AIADMK. “Our guiding force is former chief ministers MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, and their blood is running through our veins,” he said.
EPS said AIADMK MLAs had walked out of Assembly on Saturday as a mark of protest against DMK government’s attempt to change the name Tamil Nadu Dr J Jayalalithaa Fisheries University into Tamil Nadu Fisheries University. “During the AIADMK regime, Amma had scripted history by allotting more funds to the higher education, and it resulted in construction of more colleges, helping people from poor background get access to higher education by paying meagre fees. AIADMK regime changed the nomenclature of the university as a mark of respect for Amma’s contributions. But DMK government changed it back to its original name due to political reasons. We were opposing the DMK’s attempt to change name even during the initial stages,” said Palaniswami.
Reacting to it, ministerThangam Thennarasu said, “The university was established in 2012 and in 2020, the AIADMK government adopted a bill to rename the university after Jayalalithaa and to make certain other changes. But the governor did not give his assent to this bill so far and hence, the renaming of the university did not come into force. Now, the bill to rename the university after Jayalalithaa was reintroduced. Instead of welcoming the move, Palaniswami has led his MLAs into a walkout.”
‘Vote-bank politics’
Palaniswami also said soon after AIADMK snapped ties with BJP, DMK leaders started targeting AIADMK in a bid to garner votes of minority communities. He added the party will announce their alliance for the upcoming parliament elections soon.“We are getting good response from the people and the cadre are engaged sprucing up booth committees. People also aware that soaring prices of essential commodities and and collapse of law and order are the major problem during this DMK regime,” he said.