CHENNAI: The DMK on Saturday accused the ruling TVK of adopting the “same methods” as those of the BJP in using official machinery and intimidation to bring opposition leaders under its fold.
“Even after 55 days in power, the TVK government, which does not care about administration, is plotting daily on what accusations to levy against the DMK and is staging a new story every day,” DMK leader I Paranthamen said during a press conference in Chennai.
Listing out the cases pending against various TVK ministers, the DMK leader criticised Law Minister Nirmal Kumar for resorting to personal attacks and body-shaming Anitha Radhakrishnan during a late-night press briefing. Paranthamen alleged that Nirmal Kumar himself faces a cheating and land-grabbing case. “In Usilampatti, a person named Ukrapandi has filed a ‘420’ (cheating) complaint and a land fraud complaint against this very law minister,” Paranthamen said.
He accused Minister and TVK General Secretary (Election Campaign Management) Aadhav Arjuna of issuing open criminal threats against opposition leaders and pushing a commercial agenda to legalise his family’s lottery business and privatise state-run Tasmac liquor shops.
“Is Aadhav Arjuna a very clean hand? Does his family have a clean hand? What is Martin’s family? Aren’t they facing a case today for selling lotteries in the black market? Today, scratch-and-win lotteries are in high demand in Tamil Nadu,” the DMK leader said. He further claimed that Finance Minister Marie Wilson and other cabinet colleagues are facing court summonses.
Raising serious allegations of a larger political conspiracy, Paranthamen accused the ruling party of attempting to destabilise the opposition to engineer by-elections in Tamil Nadu. Citing recent media reports, he alleged that backroom negotiations were held to offer ministerial berths to several AIADMK MLAs.
“But because the law did not give them room, they are now resigning batch by batch. This resignation does not stop with Karur Vijayabhaskar. By making 25 MLAs resign gradually, they are bringing by-elections to Tamil Nadu. Without an iota of intention to run the administration, deliver governance to the people, and earn a good name, they want to keep Tamil Nadu continuously in an election cycle,” Paranthamen added.
Commenting on Anita Radhakrishnan’s arrest, Paranthamen said the court’s decision to grant bail to the DMK MLA has dealt a severe blow to the state government and exposed its fabricated legal actions.
