AIADMK coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam on Thursday dubbed the DMK-led electoral alliance “a coalition of betrayers of Tamil Nadu.”
Addressing an election campaign meeting at Punnainallur near Thanjavur, he charged that the DMK and the Congress had not done anything to uphold the rights of Tamil Nadu in the Cauvery dispute. “It was the firmness and resolute stand taken by the former AIADMK Chief Minister Jayalalithaa that brought the much-needed relief to the people of Thanjavur region,” he claimed.
Though the DMK was a constituent of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre when the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal gave its final award, it had not moved even a single stone to get the award published in the Indian Government Gazette, and it was Amma (Jayalalithaa) who made it possible after coming to power in 2011, he said.
The parties that had neglected the issue while in power have come together again now. “It is up to you to decide who should be sent to Parliament,” he said, urging the electorate to vote for TMC nominee N.R. Natarajan in the Thanjavur Parliamentary constituency. He also campaigned for R. Gandhi, the AIADMK nominee for the Thanjavur Assembly by-poll seat.
Earlier, Mr. Panneerselvam addressed election rallies at Tiruvarur where he solicited votes for the party’s Nagapattinam Parliamentary constituency candidate M. Saravanan and for the by-elections to the Tiruvarur Assembly segment, R. Jeevanandam.
On a separate campaign trail in Vandavasi in Tiruvannamalai district, AIADMK co-coordinator and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said, “The DMK accuses us of having an alliance with the BJP, which it claims is a communal party. We are asking, if that be so, why did you have an alliance with the BJP for the 1999 Lok Sabha polls?”
Canvassing votes for AIADMK Arni Parliamentary constituency candidate Gingee V. Elumalai, he said alliances are formed as per prevailing circumstances. “Every political party will have its principles and parties function based on them,” he said, accusing DMK leader M.K. Stalin of being selfish.
Rejecting the election manifesto of the DMK, Mr. Palaniswami questioned why the DMK had not implemented all the promises it made in its past election manifestos.
He said the BJP rule should continue at the Centre to fulfil all poll promises. This would extend the existing cordial relationship between the State and the Central governments. He claimed that the promises made in the AIADMK manifesto in 2011 and 2016 were fulfilled.
