IUML rues carrying palanquin for DMK

TIRUNELVELI: IUML leader and State minister Shahjahan has said the TVK is working “several times better” for Muslims than the DMK, while claiming that it was the party that had “carried the DMK on a palanquin” for many years.

Speaking to reporters in Nellai, Minority Welfare Minister Shahjahan said the IUML would continue its alliance with TVK and added that the Muslim community had welcomed the decision.

“The Indian Union Muslim League is the party that carried the DMK on a palanquin for so many years,” Shahjahan said, while also claiming that TVK was working several times better for Muslims than the DMK. He said Vijay’s influence was expanding beyond Tamil Nadu to Karnataka and Kerala, and claimed this would be reflected in the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

Shahjahan said the INDIA bloc was working with the objective of forming the government at the centre in 2029 and that TVK would also travel with the alliance. Asked whether the DMK would continue in the INDIA bloc, he said it was Arivalayam that has to clarify its position.

He said the IUML, TVK, Congress and other parties would work together in the proposed alliance and that the alliance leaders would decide on the prime ministerial candidate a few months before

Minister Shahjahan claimed that CM Vijay government was working several times better for Muslims than the DMK regime, predicting TVK’s win in 2029 LS polls the election. On the release of long-term prisoners, Shahjahan said the government was considering all steps required, within the framework of the law, to release those who had been in prison for more than 25 years.

He also said several announcements benefiting Muslim and Christian minorities would be made during the Assembly Budget session under the Minority Welfare Department’s demand for grants. The announcements, he said, would address complaints that welfare schemes meant for minorities had not been reaching beneficiaries properly.