Fear of by-election loss making them jittery: EPS

CHENNAI: Campaign for the RK Nagar by-election scheduled for December 21 reached its peak on Monday with leaders of various parties thronging different parts of the constituency.Speaking at an election meeting, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said the DMK had been lodging complaints after complaints against the AIADMK with the Election Commission since the party was in jitters over losing the by-election.  

“DMK working president Stalin is very often saying that even if the CM, the Deputy CM, ministers and other functionaries do ‘angapradhakshanam’ in RK Nagar, the AIADMK will not get even the deposit in this by-election.  If you (Stalin) believe so, then why  the hell you lodge numerous complaints with the Election Commission to disqualify our candidate E Madhusudhanan ? It is obvious that the DMK is suffering from election fever and is in jitters over losing this by-election,” the CM said.

“Since RK Nagar is the fort of the AIADMK and since DMK knows pretty well that it cannot win this by-election here, the DMK leaders have been lodging false complaints every day against the ruling party.  The opposition party is in the fray because it has an alliance of many parties. But we have our alliance with the people and since we believe in people, they will vote for us,” Palaniswami asserted.
“This by-election is a crucial one for us and we have to prove that the AIADMK cannot be cowed down at anytime. This should be a massive victory since this by-election is the first after restoring our Two Leaves symbol,” the CM said,  prodding on the party cadre there.

Palaniswami took on Deputy Leader of Opposition Duraimurugan, referring to his charges against the AIADMK government.  “AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran helped Duraimurugan in completing his studies many decades ago. Now, he is levelling charges against the AIADMK government. Just have a look at his assets in Vellore district. The college owned by him alone costs around `500 crore. From where this money came? Let Duraimurugan level charges based on facts and we will respond. He should not unleash canards,” Palaniswami said.