2026 TN elections | Maharashtra CM slams DMK 'misrule', says NDA will form next govt in TN

MADURAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said there was a wave of change in Tamil Nadu in favour of NDA and the ensuing Assembly election will see the DMK, which is "seeped in corruption and opposed to Tamil Nadu's age-old tradition", defeated at the hustings.
He expressed confidence that this time, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP allies, the NDA will form the government in the state.

"People have seen the misrule of the DMK. Almost 75 per cent of the DMK's Cabinet has criminal charges, and they are in deep corruption. The state is going to the dogs. Women, senior citizens, and children are not safe," Fadnavis told reporters here.

In the last four years, the number of child sex abuse cases doubled, the drug menace was increasing and people saw "a connivance between DMK and all these criminals," he said, flaying the DMK.

"That is why I think people will give a reply to the DMK by voting the NDA to power," the CM said, responding to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's criticism of Modi's 'double engine' government remark as "dabba engine."
According to him, under the DMK regime, the people were living under a huge debt which has crossed Rs 10 lakh crore and the debt to GDP ratio has crossed 33 per cent, taking the state to a "debt trap".

"This is a misrule of this DMK government," he added.

On the DMK's opposition to three-language policy, Fadnavis said "We are one people, one nation, and we should take pride in our language and at the same time should respect other languages of our country as well."
On the Karthigai deepam lamp lighting row, the Maharashtra CM said, the BJP supported Tamil Nadu's tradition and accused the DMK of "disturbing the age-old tradition for vote bank politics."

"This tradition (of lamp lighting) has been there a long time and has not started after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. Why does the DMK want to stop it? It is only for vote bank politics that DMK is playing, and people will show it to the DMK in the poll result," Fadnavis, who earlier visited the renowned Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple here, said.
He accompanied the BJP candidate for Madurai South, Rama Srinivasan, during the filing of the nomination papers.

After visiting the Meenakshi Amman Temple, Fadnavis said, "I have visited the sacred Meenakshi Amman Temple and took blessings of Mata Meenakshi and Bhagwan Shivji. I have prayed that Tamil Nadu sees change and gets good governance under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I have sought blessings that Tamil Nadu gets a BJP-AIADMK alliance government so that the aspirations of the people are fulfilled."