EPS slams Stalin over farmers issues

AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami (EPS) has accused Chief Minister M.K. Stalin of being unfamiliar with agriculture and the hardships faced by farmers. Addressing a campaign rally at Cumbum weekly market in Theni district, EPS said the DMK government had failed to understand or address the real issues of cultivators.

He reminded the gathering that agriculture is the backbone of Tamil Nadu and insisted that farmers must be given priority in governance. Promising that an AIADMK government would fully meet the demands of farmers, EPS assured that the Kudimaramathu scheme—a traditional water management practice aimed at maintaining tanks, lakes, and canals with public participation—would be revived.

EPS further highlighted the achievements of his tenure, recalling that it was the AIADMK government which introduced 24-hour three-phase electricity supply for farmers. This initiative, he said, had benefitted lakhs of cultivators across the state. He alleged that the current DMK regime had failed to continue these farmer-friendly policies with the same effectiveness.

Urging people to support AIADMK, EPS promised that the party would restore schemes that directly benefit farmers and strengthen rural livelihoods. He

It may be recalled that the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) had announced its departure from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) recently.

This decision comes shortly after O. Panneerselvam also exited the coalition.

​AMMK General Secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran had previously stated that a decision on their alliance would be announced in December, but a sudden change in stance led to the immediate withdrawal.

Both OPS and Dhinakaran were not invited for the PM’s TN visit recently and was also not invited for the memorial event of late TMC Leader G K Moopanar’s death anniversary, in which all the NDA partners participated, including DMDK, which later declared that there was no political or election significance to it.

With two key outfits led by OPS and Dhinakaran, who too was ousted from AIADMK, quitting the NDA, the BJP’s efforts to cobble up a formidable alliance to take on the rulign DMK and achieve its target of ousting it from power, suffered a dent.