In a sharp attack on the State government on Thursday, S. Ramadoss, founder of PMK, a key ally of the ruling AIADMK, accused it of not heeding people’s demands.
On the other hand, he praised Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, saying the latter was fulfilling all his promises and was also going beyond them, delivering welfare measures to the people.
While commending Mr. Reddy in a tweet, the PMK leader, who aligned with the AIADMK ahead of last year’s Lok Sabha polls, criticised the Tamil Nadu government. He said that those ruling the State now were refusing to say anything about fulfilling the requests of the people, and even if this was pointed out to them, they were not bothered by it and were not fulfilling their needs.
However, he did not specify which demands of the people were not being fulfilled.
Call for protest
Earlier in the day, Dr. Ramadoss urged the Vanniyar community to get ready for a massive protest, demanding separate reservation.
In a social media post, he pointed out that the demand for 20% reservation for the community was a long-pending demand, for over 40 years, and a lot of protests and sacrifices had already been made for the same.
However, Dr. Ramadoss said those who ruled the State in the past, and the current government, had not fulfilled the demand.
“Time has come again to fight for our rights and this protest will be a historic one. It will make the government request us to stop the protest and accede to our demand,” he said.
‘Posturing by PMK’
The ruling AIADMK, however, felt that Dr. Ramadoss was resorting to posturing, ahead of the 2021 Assembly election, by attacking the State government.
A senior AIADMK Minister, preferring anonymity, said the PMK founder’s posturing was to improve the bargaining power of his party during the run-up to the election.
However, PMK sources said Dr. Ramadoss was upset because the government had not implemented separate reservation for the Vanniyar community.
Asked if his tweet would not cause a strain in the relationship between the PMK and the AIADMK, sources said Dr. Ramadoss was ready for the consequences, as his objective was only to obtain a separate reservation for the community.
