Dismissing the claim of BJP stalwart and Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the saffron party-led NDA will dethrone the DMK and form a government in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Friday described it as a pipe dream, asserting that his Dravidian Model Government will retain power in the 2026 assembly election.

“Neither Amit Shah nor any Shah can ever rule Tamil Nadu, it is always out of control for Delhi. I challenge him, Tamil Nadu will not submit to Delhi’s rule for it has historically resisted hegemony and encroachment,” he said, speaking at a function got up to inaugurate developmental projects worth Rs 418.15 crore and laying the foundation for works costing Rs 390.74 crore besides distributing welfare assistance to the tune of Rs 357.43 crore to 2,02,531 beneficiaries.

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“They could not stomach Tamil Nadu remaining independent and distinctive and hence has cobbled up a coalition with traitors of Tamil interests who have pledged the self- respect and ethnic pride of the Tamils. Your strategy and design of breaking parties to come to power in all other states will never work here. It won’t succeed. Don’t get disappointed since you cannot win by forming an alliance coercing a few. Bring all your Parivar and let us face it. It will be a DMK government in 2026,” was his challenge to Amit Shah and the BJP.

“This being an election year, the people are very much aware how you will use agencies to coerce and threaten to have your way, but we are not slaves to submit. For, Tamil Nadu will fight and win,” he asserted.

The chief minister made it clear that the divide and rule policy of the BJP, which had worked in its favour in many states and in Odisha, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah have alleged that the keys of the famed Jagannath temple’s treasury had been stolen to Tamil Nadu, will only backfire in the Dravidian heartland, known for its self-respect, valour, wisdom and linguistic pride. “Because an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu was close to the then chief minister, he made the blatant charge that Odisha is being ruled by a Tamil,” he recalled, citing the instances of Union Ministers, Dharmdendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Shobha Karandlaje insulting Tamils and apologising for the same.

Turning his attention towards state autonomy, he said the committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Kurian Joseph, formed by his government to study the Constitution on Centre-State relations, was to secure the legitimate rights of all the states. “No other state had done what we have done – constituting the Committee. Tamil Nadu has emerged as the face of the fight for securing the rights of all the states. We will secure it through the committee as we have won a historic judgment from the Supreme Court against an intransigent Governor,” he said, emphasising the pressing need for state autonomy to carry out developmental and welfare programmes which a distant Delhi could never accomplish since ‘only a mother knows what her child requires’.