AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said on Sunday that there was every possibility of the Assembly election being held in Tamil Nadu together with the Lok Sabha election, due next year.
He stopped over here while going to Salem and spoke at a party meeting. He said the day when the AIADMK would regain power was not far off.
“The Lok Sabha election is due next year and there is every possibility of the Assembly election being held simultaneously. This would be in accordance with the Centre’s idea of One Nation, One Election. Our aim is to serve people whether in power or not,” he said.
Mr. Palaniswami said traitors who were acting as the DMK’s B team would fail. The AIADMK is a “banyan tree”, which the DMK would never be able to uproot, he added. AIADMK founder MGR and his successor Jayalalithaa considered the party workers their true heirs. “I have been elected the general secretary with the massive support of the rank and file, and I will discharge my duties as per the expectations of the workers,” he said.
The former Chief Minister said the AIADMK would face all cases filed by the DMK and emerge victorious.
Addressing AIADMK workers in Salem district in the evening, Mr. Palaniswami accused DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin of trying to destroy the AIADMK with former functionaries of the party. He listed the challenges faced by Jayalalithaa when she was the AIADMK general secretary and compared them with his own that emerged after her death in December 2016. He also highlighted the schemes and achievements of the erstwhile AIADMK governments. The AIADMK, he said, is a democratic and cadre-based party, while the DMK is a family party. “An ordinary worker of the AIADMK can become the Chief Minister, but not in other parties, he said.
The AIADMK workers accorded him a rousing reception on his first visit to Salem after taking over as the general secretary.
Mr. Palaniswami said that in the 2021 Assembly election, the AIADMK-led alliance won 10 seats in Salem district, an AIADMK stronghold. Under the AIADMK rule, the district benefited from many schemes, including flyovers. Power supply was uninterrupted. But power cuts were reported from urban areas now, he said. Murders, thefts, and drug trafficking showed how law and order had deteriorated under the DMK government. To change this situation, the AIADMK should win 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he said.
Published - April 02, 2023 02:13 pm IST
