Krishnagiri, Asserting that people of Tamil Nadu would never ever be ruled by Nagpur, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said it would be ruled from TN and DMK chief M K Stalin would be the next Chief Minister.
Addressing an election rally here for candidates of the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) for the April 18 polls, he batted for Stalin as the next leader to Head the state.
‘Our alliance is the alliance of the people of Tamil Nadu as both the Congress and DMK believe in social justice, secularism, freedom, justice and freedom of speech’, he added.
Responding to DMK’s oft-repeated remarks that the ruling AIADMK in the State was being controlled by the BJP-led NDA at the Centre, Rahul said ‘we will never ever let the people of Tamil Nadu to be ruled by people from Nagpur, where the headquarters of RSS was situated.
“Tamil Nadu is going to be ruled from Tamil Nadu and Stalin is going to be chief minister of Tamil Nadu’, he asserted.
Reiterating his party’s promise of 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs and in legislatures, he said ‘we are going to give reservation to Women in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha after we form government at the Centre.’
‘We will reserve 33 per cent central government jobs for women’,he added.
Criticising the BJP-led government for indulging in hate politics against the people of Tamil Nadu, he said he would launch a surgical strike on poverty if voted to power.
“BJP wanted to indulge in hate politics against the people of Tamil Nadu. Without love, we cannot win the hearts of the people of this state,” Rahul said.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul said “Mr Modi had promised Rs 15 lakh in everyone’s bank account. But I knew it was not possible and wanted to know how much could actually be put into everyone’s account.’
‘I wanted real numbers, not big theories. I am not for destroying the economy. I want to carry out a surgical strike on poverty,” he said and added that in the last five years Mr Modi ran a government for 15 people, who were his friends like Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi and others.
“In the last five years, Mr Modi ran a government for 15 people and you know the names. They are Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and they are Modi’s friends,” he said.