MK Stalin dismisses opinion poll which showed 41% in TN want him as CM

CHENNAI: In the wake of a magazine giving DMK chief M K Stalin a huge lead in an opinion poll on the race for the chief ministership in Tamil Nadu, Stalin on Monday said his party did not believe in opinion polls.

Participating in a marriage in Villupuram district, Stalin said, "Late party chief M Karunanidhi never believed in such opinion polls even when they favoured the DMK. I follow his path. We don't go by such surveys. Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) used to trust party cadres and their surveys only," he said.

In the survey conducted by the magazine, 41% favoured Stalin as the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Only 10% backed present CM Edappadi K Palaniswami, 8% favoured actor Kamal Haasan and 6% supported superstar Rajinikanth.

Attacking the AIADMK government, Stalin said the present government was heavily dependent on the Centre and was doing everything that the Centre dictated. "The government has filed seven defamation cases against me for criticising the chief minister and others," said Stalin.

"It is ironical that the chief minister, who makes tall claims that he is ready to face byelections in 20 seats, is actually scared of holding local body polls," he said. "The government accuses us of going to the court and stalling the local body elections. But we filed cases only to get the due share of seats for the SCs and STs in the polls," Stalin said.

Stalin charged that those in power were interested only in collecting commission. Hoping that the DMK would come to power next, he said the entire cabinet of Edappadi K Palaniswami would be sent to jail. CPI state secretary R Mutharasan and former Congress MP Manishankar Iyer were present at the function.