COIMBATORE: A day after AIADMK senior leader KP Munusamy hit out at TVK chief actor Vijay's 'thooya sakthi' claim, party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami seconded it, yet reiterating that all parties sharing a common objective of defeating the anti-people DMK government can join the AIADMK alliance, keeping the doors open for the fledgling party.
Distancing himself from BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran's invitation to TVK to join the NDA in Tamil Nadu, the Leader of the Opposition termed it as his personal opinion.
“I have already made it clear that parties to defeat anti-people DMK are welcome to join the AIADMK alliance,” he said, speaking to media persons, after inaugurating completed projects and laying foundation stones for new projects in his Edappadi constituency in Salem, under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MP LAD) Scheme of the party's Parliamentarian IS Inbadurai.
Palaniswami said people will decide whether TVK is a pure party or not. "Our deputy general secretary KP Munusamy has already explained the AIADMK's stand on the matter,” he said, refusing to further comment on TVK's bid to take the traditional anti-DMK poll plank under the MGR-founded party's hold all these decades. Munusamy on Sunday said TVK is an ‘adulterated’ party and cannot claim purity.
On the 12-member committee formed by DMK to prepare the poll manifesto for the 2026 Assembly polls, Palaniswami said the DMK enacted a similar drama during the last election as well.
“In the run-up to the last polls, a committee formed by DMK visited every district, assuring to resolve the grievances of people, and made 525 poll announcements. However, after coming to power, the DMK failed to fulfil even one fourth of its promises,” he said, while listing out various unkept assurances like waiver of education loan, 100 subsidy for gas cylinders and also to bring down the prices of petrol and diesel.
On the controversy surrounding the name change of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Palaniswami recalled AIADMK’s demand to retain the existing name.
“The DMK promised to increase the number of work days to 150, but failed to implement after coming to power. It, however, has no heart to appreciate the Union government for increasing the number of workdays from 100 to 125. The DMK MPs should exert pressure on the centre by raising the issue in Parliament regarding the financial strain caused to the State. Even when the AIADMK was part of the BJP alliance, our MPs stalled the parliament for 22 days over the Cauvery issue,” he said.
The AIADMK leader also attacked the DMK over the State’s rising debt burden, saying the incumbent's most significant achievement is increasing Tamil Nadu's borrowing. The State will be the first in India to have borrowed five lakh crore at the end of the DMK's tenure, he said.