People know who the fake farmer is, says EPS in response to CM Stalin’s remark

CHENNAI: Rebuking Chief Minister MK Stalin for calling him a "fake farmer" during a recent government event in the western region, Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami stated that the people of the State will deliver a fitting reply in the forthcoming Assembly elections, showing who the real farmer is.

"The people are well aware that you are the fake farmer. Hence, you have no moral authority to comment on me," said Palaniswami in a statement responding to the CM's criticism.

Palaniswami asserted that he was born into a farming family and took pride in being a farmer. He added that he still engages in agricultural activities—unlike CM Stalin, who, dressed in a suit, merely strolled along a concrete road amidst a sugarcane field in Thalaivasal in Salem district.

Continuing in the same vein, he alleged that the CM relies on photo shoots and publicity stunts to run the government. The DMK's tactics, he claimed, would soon bite the dust.

Palaniswami further accused the DMK of failing to fulfil its electoral promises made to the farming community. Ahead of the Assembly elections, the DMK had pledged Rs 4,000 per tonne of sugarcane, an increase in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme mandays from 100 to 150, and a Rs 10,000 crore initiative to desilt and deepen the water bodies to improve the State's water storage capacity. However, these promises have turned out to be nothing more than empty rhetoric, he said.