Stalin tours rural Coimbatore to thank voters

Coimbatore: DMK president M K Stalin toured around rural Coimbatore on Tuesday thanking the public for voting in favour of his party-led alliance in the just concluded Lok Sabha election and assembly byelections.
Stalin who landed in Coimbatore in the afternoon drove down to a star hotel here and then proceeded to villages in Sulur. Though the party candidate Pongalur N Palanisami could not win the segment in recently held bypolls, Stalin thanked the public for voting in large numbers for the DMK. He visited Kalangal, Sulthanpet, Appanaickenpatti, Selakarichal, Pappampatti and Pattanamputhur before returning to the hotel. Standing atop a campaign vehicle with folded hands, he thanked the public.
Though Stalin did not make any public speech, he interacted with the villagers who had gathered in large numbers in few places. Thanking them for backing the DMK, he listened to their grievances and promised to address them in the assembly. He assured that the DMK would take up their issues though the party continues to be in the opposition. In several places, the public complained of water shortage and poor basic amenities like bad roads and lack of adequate bus connectivity. He told them that the DMK was always with them irrespective of whether the assembly constituency is represented by the party or not.
On Wednesday, Stalin would unveil the portraits of late DMK MPs M Ramanathan and Subbaiayan at Meenakshi hall near Lakshmi Mills on Avinashi Road. Later in the day he is scheduled to visit Pollachi where he would be addressing a public meeting at Vadakkipalayam organized to thank the voters of the Lok Sabha constituency where DMK candidate Shanmugasundaram won. The event would also double up as birth anniversary celebrations of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi. tnn