Heated exchanges between Stalin, EPS

Chennai: A war of words is taking place between Chief Minister M K Stalin and former CM and AIADMK joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami, with both making use of the ongoing urban local body election campaign to hit out at each other.

Palaniswami owed an apology to the farming community for supporting the three contentious farm laws and deriding farmers who had fought against the now repealed legislation, Stalin said in Thanjavur on Tuesday.

Palaniswami, who claims to be a farmer, had betrayed the interests of the farming community of not only Tamilnadu but the entire country by supporting the laws, Stalin alleged.

Referring to the Cauvery and Mekedatu issues, Stalin alleged that while in power Palaniswami betrayed farmers of Cauvery delta districts and by supporting the three farms (now repealed) he betrayed the ryots of the entire country.

‘You should defeat such a Palaniswami in the civic polls. You already defeated him.’ Stalin alleged that the AIADMK leader failed to get Cauvery water, supported a law that favoured ‘hoarding’ (hinting at the Essential Commodities Amendment Act, now repealed) paddy and rice and ordered baton charge on farmers who opposed the eight lane expressway project. Listing other allegations as well, the CM said Palaniswami betrayed farmers.

Palaniswami on Tuesday charged that the ruling DMK had no fortitude to fight the urban civic elections alone as the people were angry with its misrule in the State.

Campaigning for the AIADMK candidates at a meeting in Tiruchi, he said his party was fighting the elections alone as it had immense faith in the people. But the DMK, which was portraying that it had a ‘super Chief Minister’, who claims to have done an enviable job during the last nine-month rule, had a rainbow alliance with the Congress, the CPI, the CPI(M) and others.

Denying the charge that the AIADMK was the ‘voice’ of the BJP in the State, Palaniswami said the DMK was actually the ‘dubbing voice’ of the Congress.  The AIADMK had been articulating the aspirations of the people as a responsible Opposition, he said.

He also said the CM did not do any constructive work for the welfare of people.  The DMK government did nothing for the welfare of state people, who voted it to power and there has been no development over the last eight months, he added.