CHENNAI: General Secretary of AIADMK and Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday appealed to the electorate to support the party’s labour front -- NLC Anna Thozhilar Uzhiyar Sangam -- to emerge victorious in the NLC labour union election to be held on Friday.
He also criticised Chief Minister and DMK leader MK Stalin for reportedly giving false promises to aid his party’s Labour Progressive Federation to win the election, which would be held once in four years.
Palaniswami, in a statement, noted that he wanted to unmask the false campaign of the ruling party and its leader, MK Stalin. There is nothing wrong with seeking support for his party’s labour union, but he should not repeat their strategy to deceive the workers through his false promises.
Pointing out the statement of the CM that the proactive measures of the DMK stalled the Union Government from privatising NLC by selling its shares, Palaniswami said it was an utter lie.
He continued that it was the effort of the then opposition leader J Jayalalithaa in 2007 and 2013 that thwarted the Congress-led UPA government’s efforts to privatise the public sector company.
In 2013, then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa wrote a letter to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against privatisation and also bought a 5% share of NLC through TIDCO, which brought the NLC workers 13 13-day protest to an end.
“The efforts of the AIADMK leader stopped privatising of NLC,” said Palaniswami.