‘Failed’ NDA was restored out of compulsion and blackmail, says Tamil Nadu CM Stalin

Stalin criticizes the NDA as a coerced alliance, claiming it fails to represent Tamil Nadu's interests ahead of elections.

DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday took a dig at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which includes the AIADMK  and the BJP, saying a front that was rejected by the people had been renewed and projected as a “new alliance”.

“What has been restored is a failed alliance. This is merely a cosmetic attempt to give it a fresh build-up,” he said, speaking at the ‘Vellum Tamizh Pengal’ Cauvery delta zone-level DMK women’s wing conference at Sengipatti in Thanjavur district. The coming Assembly election, he said, would not be a fight between the NDA and the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, but between the “NDA and Tamil Nadu”. For, Tamil Nadu meant the DMK, “which truly works and fights for the people of the State”.

Mr. Stalin accused the NDA of attempting to impose itself on the State through coercive politics and false narratives. He claimed that parties had joined the NDA owing to pressure from Central government agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax Department, and the CBI. “With folded hands, they are hoping that the ‘washing machine’ will cleanse them,” he said.

He said the BJP-AIADMK combine had been decisively defeated in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the two parties contested separately, but were rejected again by the electorate. “Despite the repeated verdicts, they have now glued together broken pieces that have been presented as the NDA. Everyone knows that this is an alliance born out of compulsion and blackmail, imposed against the wishes of genuine AIADMK workers,” Mr. Stalin said.

He said the BJP believed that it could rule Tamil Nadu remotely from Delhi by installing “puppets”. “For this, Tamil Nadu will give a fitting response.”

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of spreading falsehood during his recent visit to Tamil Nadu, Mr. Stalin countered the claim that there was no safety for women in the State. “Do not spread falsehood about Tamil Nadu while ignoring the situation in the BJP-ruled States,” he said, pointing to the prolonged violence in Manipur. Tamil Nadu, he said, was the safest State in the country. Seven cities in Tamil Nadu were among the top 25 in the list of Top Cities for Women in India released by Avtar Group (a private organisation), he said. He also questioned the effectiveness of the BJP’s “double-engine” model of governance, noting that peace had not been restored in the northeastern State despite the same party being in power at the Centre as well as in the State.