Chennai: Just a few days after he returned from Dubai, Tamilnadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin reached New Delhi on Wednesday night.
He will meet a host of political party leaders and take up issues concerning the State with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers, besides meeting leaders of various like-minded and secular political parties in a bid to strengthen a Front to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.
In an epistle to DMK cadres, Stalin said, ‘after the successful visit of UAE during which MoUs were signed to the tune of more than Rs 6,000 crores with six firms, my next visit is towards Delhi’.
He said he would be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi today afternoon, which will be followed by a meeting with several Ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Road and Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and others.
He said during his visit he would insist the Ministers to allocate funds for for the various schemes announced by the DMK government, besides seeking pending dues from the Centre on flood assistance, relief from NEET, GST dues and the Karnataka’s proposal to construct a new dam at Mekedatu across River Cauvery without the consent of the riparian States and protect the State’s rights.
It will be followed by a meeting of leaders of various parties, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other national leaders, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee and left party leaders.
During his visit, he will invite the President, Vice-President and other leaders for the inauguration of the party office Kalaignar Anna Arivalayam at Deendayal Marg on 2 April, which is seen as a platform to unite secular parties to take on the BJP.
This will be his second meeting with the Prime Minister after he assumed office in May 2021 as the Chief Minister.
In a statement, the Chief Minister’s office said Stalin is expected to take up several issues concerning the State, including pending Bills with the Governor and other infrastructure and development issues.
During his visit, the Chief Minister will inaugurate ‘Anna Kalaignar Arivalayam’, the DMK party office in New Delhi on 2 April.
DMK Parliamentary party leader and former Union Minister T R Baalu has met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP president J P Nadda, and other senior leaders and extended the invitation of the DMK office inauguration.
Significantly, the DMK is trying to catapult Stalin to the national stage as an alternative to the BJP during the 2024 polls and the Delhi office inauguration is considered a major meeting point with senior regional chieftains and to take up the coordination for an anti-NDA front at the national level, which he had already taken it up.
While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had travelled across the country and met senior opposition leaders for a joint front, Stalin is more acceptable as he maintains an excellent relationship with the Congress, CPM, and CPI which will be of use for a national anti-BJP front.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister will also be submitting a memorandum to the Prime Minister seeking the approval of the Union government for the recently passed Bill seeking exemption for Tamilnadu from NEET and several other demands, including not to give permission for Karnataka to proceed with dam construction at Mekedatu and to release the financial dues for the State, sources said.