‘Bypoll to be major turning point for EPS’

MADURAI: The Erode East bypoll would be a major turning point for the AIADMK, enabling the party’s interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami to become the chief minister yet again, claimed party MLA RB Udhayakumar.

The Palaniswami-led AIADMK has devised a winning strategy and was gearing up to achieve the goal of winning the bypoll in which it is pitted against the Congress, a key ally of ruling DMK, he told reporters in Madurai on Saturday.

According to Udhayakumar, an EPS loyalist, Palaniswami was the first among the political leaders to form a committee to take up electioneering, while the other parties, which are closely watching his every move, followed suit soon afterwards.

The party would go to the people by highlighting the welfare schemes launched by late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and her successor Palaniswami, he added.

The ruling DMK has failed to implement any scheme that would benefit the masses, and on the other hand, its government has been adopting anti-people policies in the last 18 months since it came to power.

The schemes that the present regime is claiming credit for were all introduced by Palaniswami when he was the chief minister, Udhayakumar alleged. All that Chief Minister MK Stalin has been doing is to ‘cut ribbons’, he said.