Vijay demands full statehood for Puducherry, spares CM Rangasamy but trains guns on BJP, DMK

In his first mass outreach after the Karur tragedy, movie icon and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay on Tuesday trained his guns on the BJP and DMK but spared Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy.

Addressing a rally in Puducherry from his campaign vehicle, he charged the BJP-led Union Government with discriminating against the former French enclave despite the saffron party being part of the ruling coalition. He asked the people to be wary of the DMK, which makes promises only to befool the electorate since they are made only to be breached.

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“Full statehood for the Union Territory is long overdue,” he said, and squarely blamed the BJP and the Union Government for the lack of development. “Puducherry should be accorded full statehood, and the Territorial Assembly has passed a resolution, for the 16th time, and forwarded it to the Centre. Granting full statehood is not enough; the state requires a developmental push. But, despite the BJP being a constituent of the ruling coalition, the Union Territory is facing discrimination by the Union Government in financial allocation and industrialisation,” he made it clear.

“Puducherry is reeling under a debt burden since the financial allocation is enough only to meet the salary of employees and other recurring expenditures. Without statehood, the Union Territory is not even part of the Finance Commission. Debt burden is driving Puducherry to avail loans,” he pointed out and bemoaned the absence of any IT firm or any major industry to provide jobs to the youth.

“For more than 200 days, a minister, who replaced another who was dropped on corruption charges, had been remaining without a portfolio. This has not gone down well with the minority community. Further, Puducherry happens to be the only place in the country without PDS ration shops,” he said.

Directing his ire at the DMK, Vijay said, “Puducherry had the first AIADMK government in 1974, ahead of Tamil Nadu where MGR (AIADMK founder and iconic actor MG Ramachandran) dethroned the DMK in 1977. Thus, it was Puducherry that had alerted Tamil Nadu that MGR was for us and should not be missed. I want to tell you this,” adding that the TVK is committed to developing Puducherry.

Being the first public meeting of Vijay after the September 27 stampede, which claimed 41 lives, police had stipulated strict conditions, including restricting the number of attendees to 5,000, among others. Only those from Puducherry with a QR code were allowed entry into the venue at the Oupalam helipad ground.

There was a security scare when the police apprehended a person with a pistol attempting to enter the venue. He had been taken into custody for questioning.

Vijay’s being soft on Chief Minister Rangasamy and thanking him for the security arrangements is seen as keeping an option of allying with the AINRC party of the Chief Minister. Earlier, the TVK had reportedly tried to rope in the AINRC.