Chennai: Making his first visit to Tamil Nadu this election season during an advanced stage, amid a not so warm alliance with the ruling DMK, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday described the AIADMK as a mask of the BJP, a national party that wants an ally which will let it rule the southern State from New Delhi. Rahul says AIADMK no longer functions independentlyRahul, who hopped to three regions for campaigning for the DMK-Congress alliance candidates, told the electorate in Ponneri near Chennai – his first stop – that the AIADMK under Edappadi K Palaniswami no longer functions independently and instead was being used by the BJP to advance its own political interests in the Dravidian state. The Congress leader, who is learnt to have been unhappy with the seat sharing arrangement with the DMK, had avoided any election tour programme that could provide an opportunity for a joint campaign with DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin, whom in the past he had addressed as “my elder brother”. Even when he came to campaign in Puducherry earlier this month, he opted for a different ‘time zone’ for his programme though Stalin too had an election tour the same day.
DMK said Stalin’s schedule was drawn up in advance
On Friday, the DMK made it clear that there would be no joint campaign involving Stalin and Rahul as the former’s election schedule was drawn up much in advance. But both leaders campaigned for the alliance candidates. In Ponneri, Rahul hit out at the BJP’s move to rush through a Constitutional Amendment Bill linked to delimitation. “Hidden behind the Bill yesterday was delimitation. The idea was to reduce Tamil Nadu’s representation…to weaken the strength of southern States and northeastern States. And we defeated the Bill,” he said. He hails DMK, INDIA bloc for protecting Tamil languageHe hailed his “brothers” in the DMK and the INDIA bloc “are protecting the Tamil language from the assault of the BJP and its partners, including the AIADMK.” He assured that “On our commitment, we will ensure the BJP and RSS will never touch the Tamil people.”
The future of Tamil Nadu should be decided by its people, including local and elected representatives, and not by leaders in Delhi, he said. “The main thing is that we do not allow the RSS and BJP, and their partners, entry into Tamil Nadu. They believe the future of Tamil Nadu should be decided by them,” he charged.