2024 polls not about who should rule, it's about who shouldn't: Stalin

CHENNAI: Laying the platform for Lok Sabha elections next year, Stalin on his birthday meet urged Opposition parties to put up a front against the "fascist" BJP setting aside all the differences.

Speaking at his birthday meet held in city, Stalin congratulated Kharge on the 85th Congress Plenary session and said resolutions passed in the meet were his birthday gifts. Recalling his humble beginnings, Stalin said he started his political journey in the age of 16 and held the black and red (DMK) flag to all sides of Tamil Nadu. "There is not a single place in the State where I have not set my foot,” he said. Being in politics for such a long time without realising years tumbling by, he said only on his birthday he has realised he turned 70.

Recounting the MISA arrest days, Stalin said the prison became his training camp for politics.

Praising the Dravidian leaders CN Annadurai and M Karunanidhi, Stalin said, "I am not a gifted orator like Anna, nor a good writer like Karunanidhi, but hardwork is a commonality between myself and them".

Pressing on the need for a Congress-led Opposition front, Stalin urged parties opposed to BJP to understand the "electoral arithmetics" and unite under one banner, he added saying 2024 Lok Sabha election is not about who should rule, but it is about who shouldn't rule. He called talks a third front "pointless".

Including the lone Lok Sabha seat in Puducherry, Stalin cried "Naarpadhum Namadhe, Naadum Namadhe" (40 is ours --- TN + Puducherry LS seats --- so is the nation)