Former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami welcomed the newly-inducted AIADMK members on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday urged people to vote for the AIADMK in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and teach the DMK a lesson. He was speaking at a function to welcome workers of other political parties into the AIADMK fold at Omalur in Salem district.
Mr. Palaniswami said that after the demise of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, “our enemies thought the AIADMK would be eliminated. But we won 66 seats in the 2021 Assembly election. Because of some betrayers in the party, we were unable to come to power again, and now they have been expelled from the party.”
Questioning Chief Minister M.K. Stalin yet again for retaining V. Senthilbalaji in the Cabinet, despite his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, Mr. Palaniswami said that when Mr. Stalin was the Leader of the Opposition, he had termed Mr. Senthilbalaji a corrupt person and demanded action against him. Now the Chief Minister was trying to protect him.
“By selling liquor at a higher price, ₹3,600 crore is allegedly looted every year. Mr. Senthilbalaji is a prisoner now. Allowing him to serve as a Minister would set a bad example. The Enforcement Directorate has taken action against the Minister based on a Supreme Court order. But the DMK government is blaming the Centre for this and diverting attention from the issue,” he said.
Salem is a stronghold of the AIADMK, and in the 2021 Assembly election, the party won 10 of the 11 seats in the district. Mr. Stalin tried to destroy the AIADMK through various means, but his attempts failed, Mr. Palaniswami alleged. “He came to Salem three times in two years and inaugurated the projects conceived by the AIADMK. People are expecting the end of the DMK government and the AIADMK will return to power again,” he said.
Listing the achievements of the erstwhile AIADMK government, he said various departments received national awards for their performance. “How many national awards did the DMK government get in two years? The AIADMK bought around 14,000 new buses, but not a single bus was bought by the DMK government; now buses operate in poor condition,” he said.
The Leader of the Opposition said that in the name of attracting investments, the Chief Minister went to Dubai with his family. No new industries came to the State through his visit. “Newspapers report signing of memoranda of understanding. While I was the Chief Minister, investments worth ₹3.05 lakh crores were attracted through the Global Investors Meet…Only the AIADMK created job opportunities for the youth, not the DMK,” he said.