AIADMK MPs raised more questions in Parliament than DMK MPs, says Edappadi K. Palaniswami
The Hindu
AIADMK's Edappadi K. Palaniswami highlights party's parliamentary performance and criticizes DMK's governance and corruption allegations.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday said the party MPs during 2014-19 had raised more questions in Parliament than DMK and its alliance MPs did during 2019-24.
Addressing a public meeting at Dadagapatti in Salem as part of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary celebrations, Mr. Palaniswami said during 2014–19, AIADMK MPs raised 16,619 questions in Parliament. But DMK and MPs of its allies raised only 9,695 questions in 2019–2024. This proved how the AIADMK MPs raised people’s issues in Parliament, he said.
Mr Palaniswami said a few people had thought the AIADMK would vanish after the death of Jayalalithaa. “Some betrayers tried to destroy the party by joining hands with the DMK. In the AIADMK, a cadre has become the party general secretary and Chief Minister. The DMK is a corporate company and people from one family only become the Chief Minister and leader of DMK,” he alleged.
During the Cauvery issue, the AIADMK MPs protested and did not allow the Parliament to function. But the DMK MPs failed to raise the issue of seeking funds for recent flood damage in Chennai and the southern districts, he claimed.
Alleging that the DMK had not done anything for the State in the past three years of its rule, Mr. Palaniswami reiterated his claim that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was inaugurating projects brought by the AIADMK government. Under the DMK government, the debts of the State increased to ₹8.33 lakh crore and before 2026, it would go up to ₹10 lakh crore, be said.
During the erstwhile AIADMK government, 15,000 new buses were bought for transport corporations. But the DMK government bought only 100 buses, he claimed. The Madras High Court was taking corruption cases against the DMK Ministers suo moto. “When I was the Chief Minister, the DMK filed a corruption case against me and I fought the case in the Supreme Court and won the legal battle. But the DMK Ministers are afraid to face the cases,” Mr. Palaniswami alleged.
The Election Commission of India will hold a press conference on June 3, a day before the counting of votes polled in the Lok Sabha polls. Till the 2019 parliamentary polls, deputy election commissioners used to hold media briefings after each phase of polls, but the practice has been done away with.