Ridiculing the NDA in Tamil Nadu as clueless and directionless, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Monday said the saffron alliance till now has no clarity on who is heading it with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) desisting from speaking in one voce but pulling it in different directions.
While Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Anit Shah preferred to talk only about an NDA government, EPS is never tired of asserting the AIADMK securing a majority of its own and forming the government, he said at a media event in Chennai. Stalin’s jibe came a day after Modi claimed of forming an NDA government in the state at the Madurai rally with EPS seated on the dais along with other constituents of the alliance.
“With EPS sharing the dais, the Prime Minister spoke of forming an NDA government. It is a coalition which does not even have a clarity on who is leading it and who is in the driver’s seat,” Stalin said, describing it as a comedy. However, he made it clear that the electoral fight is between Team Tamil Nadu and Team Delhi which is affirmed by both Modi and Shah every time they visit the state. “Eventually, Tamil Nadu will win the electoral contest,” he asserted.
To a question on Modi’s observation that the DMK’s dream of returning to power would be a nightmare with Tamil Nadu having made up its mind to remove it, the Chief Minister said “Well, Modi has been dreaming of a BJP government in the state. It will not be what he expects to be since it has remained a mirage so far.”
Debunking the BJP’s claim about double engine sarkar, Stalin reiterated that the governments ruled by the BJP or the NDA coalition were dabba (defunct) engines. Tamil Nadu’s growth, he said, was not due to the Union Government but despite it. He said the data by the Union Government is proof of the state under the DMK retaining the numero uno position in development indices and industrialization beating many BJP ruled states. “Can the BJP-ruled states, the so-called double engine states, show such a development?” Stalin asked and said, “certainly not’. “Since the Prime Minister himself has nothing to show for his achievements, he has been dishing out a litany of lies and canards during the election,” he alleged.
“For, all that the BJP promotes is violence, hate speech and a regressive ideology, in complete contrast to the principles which the DMK government stands by. Maintaining that unlike the NDA, the DMK alliance is a coalition with ideological coherence,” he said, adding that more parties would join the DMK combine.