Delhi trip to secure TN’s rights, Stalin tells Opposition

Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday hit back at Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami for criticising his New Delhi visit and said that he had gone to the national capital only for the rights of Tamil Nadu.

Speaking at the family wedding of TN Construction Workers Welfare Board chairman Pon Kumar here, Stalin said, “I went (to Delhi) for the rights of Tamil Nadu and nothing else. I say this because I am not an ordinary Stalin. I had stated even while assuming office (of the CM) that I am Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin. I am Kalaignar’s son. I will strive for Tamil Nadu forever.”

Recalling his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers during his recent Delhi visit, Stalin said, “We had raised the state’s issues and placed requests with the PM and concerned Ministers. Some people, who are unable to tolerate it, are attempting to cover it up, have alleged that I was fear-stricken and I had gone to protect myself from problems I am trapped in. Let me state something very clearly. I did not prostrate before anyone there and seek obligation. I went for the rights of Tamil Nadu.”

Also recalling the allegations leveled by Palaniswami about his UAE visit, the CM said, “I do not have to respond to that. People who spoke ahead of me have offered clarification for that.”

Palaniswami had alleged that the CM’s trip to UAE was organized for his family to make investments overseas. DMK Rajya Sabha MP and organising secretary RS Bharathi had even sent a legal notice to state BJP president K Annamalai for leveling allegations about the CM’s Dubai trip.

Third place with just 10 pc vote share? Stalin scoffs at state BJP’s claims

Scoffing at the BJP’s claim of having emerged as the third force in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and DMK supremo MK Stalin has said it is like a student managing just a 10-point score behind those having 90 and 50 marks. He also said it was wrong to assume that the BJP won massively in the recently held Assembly elections in five states as its tally declined in Uttar Pradesh and its 10 ministers, including one deputy chief minister, lost there, while several key leaders in Goa and the chief minister in Uttarakhand also had to suffer defeat. “Taking into account the real field conditions of the five state election results, I’ll say it is negative for the BJP,” Stalin said in an interview. “In UP, they have got fewer seats than last time. The defeat of 10 ministers, including the deputy chief minister, is an expression of popular discontent. The BJP chief minister has been defeated in Uttarakhand and their key leaders lost in Goa too. The party has won only two seats in the Punjab Assembly,” said the DMK leader, who was on a three-day visit to the national capital. Asked about the BJP’s claim that it has emerged as the third force in Tamil Nadu, Stalin said, “A boy gets 90 marks in an examination. Another student gets a score of 50. Another one gets 10 points. Would you appreciate a 10-point scorer finishing third?” After urban local body polls in February, the BJP claimed that it has emerged as the third-largest party in Tamil Nadu after the DMK and the AIADMK. Asked about his message for all opposition parties for taking on the BJP in 2024, Stalin said, “All parties must realise that unity is strength. Everyone must come together to save India. My plea is that if we want to preserve India’s diversity, federalism, democracy, secularism, equality, fraternity, state rights, education rights, we must all leave aside our individual political mindsets and unite.”

Stalin gets invite for CPM party congress

Chief Minister MK Stalin’s political itinerary seems to be getting hectic day by day. After bringing non-BJP parties together for the inauguration of his party office in New Delhi, Chief Minister MK Stalin is all set to engage with the Marxists in a few days.

CPM has invited Stalin for the party congress in Kannur later this week. Stalin who has been stretching his wings of late for a greater role in national politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections could attend the Marxist party’s Congress on April 9 as much to optimize his political stature as to express solidarity with his Marxist brethren.

On Sunday, Kerala Adi Dravidar and Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan, accompanied by his Tamil Nadu state party secretary K Balakrishnan, invited Stalin for the communist party’s most significant event.

If sources in the DMK are to be believed, Stalin would likely visit Kannur or depute one of his senior-most party leaders to assert his position as one of the key leaders rallying the secular parties against the communal BJP. An aspirational Stalin has already indicated that politics at the state and national level were intertwined and the DMK was looking at a larger role in the national polity. Curiously, CPM national general secretary Sitaram Yechery had also echoed similar views in the party’s state meeting in Madurai.

A DMK senior seeking anonymity said that the invitation for the CPM Congress was only the latest and parties like TMC and TRS had already networked with Stalin after realising the significance of the DMK in national politics. “All non-BJP parties have realised that we (DMK) are crucial to fight the BJP in 2024. So, it is quite natural that they are wooing us one after another,” he added.