Winding up his nearly month-long election campaign in Tiruvarur, which was represented by his father M. Karunanidhi in the Assembly, DMK president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday called upon the voters of Tamil Nadu not to give room for “those who had refused to allot six feet of land” for laying to rest the former Chief Minister next to his mentor C.N. Annadurai on the Marina.
In his final campaign address near the Kasi Viswanathar temple on the South-East corner of the Kamalalayam Tank in the town, the DMK president recalled that he had pleaded in-person with the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to allot space to bury the mortal remains of Karunanidhi near Anna’s memorial, as per his wishes. “But we were able to get his (Karunanidhi’s) dream fulfilled only with the help of the court,” he said.
“Now we have an opportunity to come to power in the State,” he said, pointing out that if the DMK wins all the 22 Assembly seats for which byelections are to be held, the strength of the DMK-led alliance would cross the “magic figure” of 117, required to form the government.
Exhorting the electorate of Tiruvarur Assembly segment to utilise the opportunity to dethrone the government headed by a ‘useless’ person and usher in a “people’s government”, Mr. Stalin said that by electing the CPI candidate for Nagapattinam Lok Sabha constituency, M. Selvarasu, the ‘autocratic’ government at the Centre could also be shown the door.
Mr. Stalinsought to strike a chord with voters by recalling the contributions of Karunanidhi towards upholding and protecting the rights of Tamils. Karunanidhi had always extended a helping hand to government servants, teachers and farmers, he said.
He highlighted the salient features of the manifestos of the Congress and the DMK and observed that if the Centre and State governments had such concurrent views, it would help in achieving goals with ease.
Woman faints
A woman, who was waiting near the Koradacherry railway level-crossing to hear Mr. Stalin’s speech in the morning, fainted, presumably due to heat.
She was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital by the organisers of the public meeting.