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Updated – July 05, 2024 03:42 pm IST
Published – July 05, 2024 03:16 pm IST – COIMBATORE
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami. File | Photo Credit: Akhila Easwaran
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday, July 4, 2023, slammed BJP State president K. Annamalai for claiming that the AIADMK had stayed away from the July 10 Vikravandi bypoll, fearing a defeat, and to avoid being relegated to the fourth or fifth place.
Mr. Palaniswami noted that he had clearly stated his reasons for boycotting the bypoll. The Leader of Opposition told journalists in Coimbatore that in the Vikravandi Assembly segment, which comes under the Villuppuram Lok Sabha constituency, the AIADMK nominee had polled only 6,800 votes fewer than the winning candidate in 2024. He ridiculed Mr. Annamalai’s political acumen, and said he wanted to know what schemes or projects Mr. Annamalai had got for Tamil Nadu from the ruling BJP at the Centre.
Mr. Palaniswami also flayed Mr. Annamalai for creating the fake impression that the BJP has grown in Tamil Nadu, after his takeover of the party leadership. “On the contrary the party has not grown. Both in 2014 and in 2024, the BJP fought electoral battles only with alliances. In 2014, the BJP candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan polled only 42,000 votes less than the winning AIADMK nominee but in 2024, the BJP Candidate K. Annamalai has polled 1 lakh votes less than the winning DMK nominee in the Coimbatore parliamentary seat. The BJP’s vote percentage in 2014 was 18.80 per cent but in the 2024, it has polled only 18.28 per cent which is 0.52 per cent lower,” Mr Palaniswami pointed out..
The AIADMK leader also challenged Mr. Annamalai to implement the 100 poll promises that he had made during the campaign, through the Central government. Only because of leaders like K. Annamalai has the BJP, which won in more than 300 seats in 2019, been forced to form a government with a coalition at the Centre, he charged.
On the PMK soliciting AIADMK supporters in the Vikravandi bypoll, he said, this was purely the discretion of the PMK leader S. Ramadoss.
On integrating the various factions of the AIADMK, Mr. Palaniswami said his party would go by its rule book. The party’s general body had expelled former coordinator O Panneerselvam and former interim general secretary V. Sasikala was not even an AIADMK member, he said. He ridiculed the statements by both on mergers of the factions. He pointed out that in 2021, Ms. Sasikala had, in a statement, said she would stay away from politics and would continue to pray that Jayalalitha’s rule come back in the State. He also reminded Ms. Sasikala “to show the decency shown by Janaki Ammal when M. G. Ramachandran passed away,” referring to her decision to quit politics and merging of factions then.
“When the AIADMK comes to power, none of the corrupt Ministers in the DMK will be spared,” the AIADMK leader said adding that he would order a probe into the statement allegedly made by Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan about “widespread corrupt practices” in the government.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam / Bharatiya Janata Party / election / Tamil Nadu / state politics
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