Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who crawled like a lizard to get the coveted post, should explain to the people if his close relatives have been given contracts worth about ₹4,000 crore or not, in violation of the law, DMK president M.K. Stalin said.
“If you want to project yourself as ‘Mr. Clean’, you should the people openly whether or not you awarded these bulky contracts to your relatives in violation of the norms,” Mr. Stalin said, while canvassing for votes on Saturday for the DMK and Congress candidates fielded in six Assembly segments in Kanniyakumari district, as well as for the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha by-poll candidate Vijay Vasanth, on Saturday.
The Opposition Leader said the DMK, besides submitting a petition detailing the corruption of Mr. Palaniswami and his Ministers to Governor Banwarilal Purohit, had approached the Madras High Court seeking a probe into the awarding of contracts to Mr. Palaniswami’s relatives. A panicked Mr. Palaniswami, instead of bravely facing the CBI probe as ordered by the Madras High Court, obtained an interim stay for the probe. The reason was that he, after comfortably tweaking the norms, had awarded contracts to the firms being run by his close relatives, he said.
“We know very well that the Governor will never act on our petition. The spineless Mr. Palaniswami would have been behind bars if he had accepted the DMK’s challenge and faced the CBI probe. Anyway, he will be in jail after the DMK comes to power in May this year,” Mr. Stalin said.
The DMK president also said the raid conducted by the Central agencies that exposed these relatives’ unlawfully amassed wealth was what ultimately made Mr. Palaniswami the slave of the BJP-led Central Government. While late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa vehemently opposed GST, NEET, the UDAY scheme, Food Security Act etc. through her letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2016, the “slaves”, after mortgaging the rights of Tamil Nadu, gleefully accepted these anti-Tamil moves initiated by the “arm-twisting BJP” at the Centre and had ultimately become BJP’s branch here, he said.
Mr. Stalin slammed the AIADMK for having backed the abrogation of Article 370, Triple Talak, CAA, Farmers’ Act etc. in the Parliament. “Hence I tell you voters that the victory of even an AIADMK MLA will be only beneficial to the BJP. Whipping up religious sentiments, PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are working overtime to religiously divide the country. So, give the AIADMK – BJP combine a crushing defeat in the upcoming April 6 Assembly polls and also in the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha by-poll,” Mr. Stalin appealed.
Highlighting the salient features of the DMK manifesto for the Assembly polls, the DMK president said his party would never allow the Kanniyakumari Container Transhipment Terminal as it would wipe out farming operations in this serene region. He also promised to establish the Ayya Vaikundasamy Research Centre, the Vaniyakkudi fishing harbour, an Information Technology Park and Cancer Centre in the Government Medical College Hospital at Aasaaripallam.
“Since the Tamil Nadu government has given only ₹1,000 as COVID-19 relief even as the DMK is batting for ₹5,000, the remaining Rs. 4,000 will be given from June 3, the birthday of M. Karunanidhi, after the DMK comes to power,” Mr. Stalin announced.
Even as COVID-19 cases are on the rise in TN, there was absolute disregard for physical distancing in the crowd that listened to Mr. Stalin and only a few were seen wearing masks at the election campaigns in Thuckalay.
