The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) will not form an electoral alliance with any of the national parties in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, its general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced in Sirkazhi on Sunday.
Mr. Palaniswami’s comments came against the backdrop of the Congress high command appointing K. Selvaperunthagai as the president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. Given that the new incumbent shares good relations with the DMK leadership, it is unlikely that the national party would exit the alliance and look to tie up with the AIADMK.
Addressing the media, the Leader of the Opposition, who was in Sirkazhi to participate in a public meeting where thousands of cadre “from other parties” joined the AIADMK, ruled out the possibility of the AIADMK forming an alliance with either of the national parties. The AIADMK exited the BJP-led NDA last year.
Speaking at the public meeting, he said that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had failed to obtain Tamil Nadu’s due share of Cauvery water from Karnataka, which resulted in the loss of over 3.5 lakh acres of kuruvai crop in the delta districts.
“Mr. Stalin is busy trying to accumulate power within his family and not concerned about the welfare of the people,” Mr. Palaniswami said.
He pointed out that in the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the DMK promised that it would abolish the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) if it came to power. However, even after three years of assuming office, the DMK government has not fulfilled its promise. “The DMK obtained signatures from students against NEET. But the signature copies were discarded during the DMK’s youth wing conference held in Salem recently,” he claimed. “They made attractive promises to come to power, but cheated people with zero implementation,” he alleged.
The 7.5% horizontal reservation in medical colleges for NEET-qualified government school students was the brainchild of the AIADMK government, he said.
“The DMK neglected the minorities for the past three years. After the AIADMK snapped ties with the BJP and several minority community leaders approached the AIADMK, Mr. Stalin is attempting minority outreach. It is the AIADMK that always stood with Muslims and Christians,” he added.
