Notwithstanding the fact that his government was short of a simple majority by six MLAs, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday said efforts by dissidents and rival parties to bring down the government will not succeed.
Participating in MGR’s birth centenary celebrations here, he said the “rule of Amma (Jayalalithaa)” will continue in the State. According to him, the AIADMK had 1.5 crore foot soldiers and none can touch or destroy the party.
Without naming sidelined party leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran and an opposition party leader, Mr. Palaniswami said that efforts of rivals within and outside the party to bring down the government will not succeed. Listing out various schemes implemented in the State, he claimed that people have realised the benefits of the schemes while a few have no heart to praise it and have instead chosen to find fault with them. “People will never pay any attention to their words and some day they would be forced to eat their own words,” he added.
Mr. Palaniswami said that the leader of the opposition M.K. Stalin is interested only in finding fault.
“He keeps saying that the government will fall soon. Having failed to do anything good for the people, during their rule, their dream of capturing power will not fructify,” he added.
The Chief Minister inaugurated various projects executed at a cost of ₹65.37 crore in the district and also laid the foundation stone for projects worth ₹584.24 crore. He unveiled the portrait of MGR and distributed certificates to the winners of various competitions held in connection with the celebrations.
Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly P. Dhanapal, Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha M. Thambi Durai, Minister for School Education and Sports and Youth Welfare K.A. Sengottaiyan, Minister for Environment K.C. Karuppannan also spoke.
‘We did our best’
Earlier, talking to media persons in Coimbatore, Mr. Palaniswami said the State Government did its best to secure an exemption for the State from NEET and had prevailed upon the Central Government in this regard. But following a Supreme Court verdict, it was pushed to a situation where it had no choice but to implement the verdict.
On whether he would appeal to the students to give up their protest, Mr. Palaniswami said that the media and also those protesting knew pretty well what the verdict was and what the State Government should do to abide by the order.
