Palaniswami hits back at Stalin, calls the DMK a ‘slave’ of the Congress

AIADMK's Edappadi K. Palaniswami criticizes DMK as a Congress 'slave' while asserting his party's independence and welfare achievements.

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday accused the ruling DMK of being a “slave” to the Congress.

Rebutting Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin’s criticism that he was a “slave of Delhi” (meaning the BJP-led government at the Centre), Mr. Palaniswami told a gathering at Vanagaram near Chennai, “We have never been slaves of anyone. We believe in our constructive work. By implementing [welfare] projects, we had secured the support [of the Centre]. But your party is not like us. The Congress had secured seats by intimidating the DMK.”

Referring to reports of differences of opinion between the DMK and the Congress over seat-sharing, the AIADMK leader said his organisation had formed an alliance with like-minded parties. “The alliance will bag the largest number of seats and the AIADMK will form a government,” he reiterated, adding that the AIADMK had struck an alliance with the BJP  “only to remove the DMK from power”.

As for CPI(M) State secretary P. Shanmugam’s remarks that it appeared only the BJP would allocate seats to the AIADMK in the coming election, Mr. Palaniswami retorted that the CPI(M) had not grown in the State because it had been a “slave” [of the DMK] for about 10 years.

Comparing the prices of essential commodities during AIADMK and  DMK rule, he said the ruling party had not taken steps to contain inflation. During the day, Mr. Palaniswami covered the Poonamallee  and Maduravoyal constituencies.