TIRUCHY: Accusing the DMK government of cheating the farmers by failing to fulfill key promises made in the 2021 election manifesto, the Tamilaga Vivasayigal Pathukappu Sangam on Wednesday announced a campaign to boycott DMK in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Speaking to reporters in Thanjavur after the association’s state-level meeting, founder Easan Murugasamy said, DMK made as many as 83 promises for the farmers in 2021, but they could fulfill only 10 to date. "DMK promised the farmers that the agricultural lands would not be acquired for other purposes without the consent of the farmers. However, they had taken away 1.10 lakh acre land for the lowest ever price from the farmers for establishing as many as 40 SIPCOT units and gave the lands to the corporate firms," he charged.
Murugasamy, who led the protest of poultry farmers and courted an arrest, pointed out that Stalin is the only Chief Minister in India to detain seven farmers under the Goondas Act. The DMK government has arrested 20 farmers who protested against the dredging of gravel and sand, and arrested the poultry farmers who protested for a wage hike, he said.
He also charged that DMK had failed to increase the MSP for paddy and sugarcane as per their poll promise. “The DMK is an anti-farmer party, and the farmers should not back the party in the upcoming polls. We must campaign for NOTA to register our protest in the upcoming assembly polls," he stressed.