Addressing a gathering on the second day of his road show campaign, ‘vetrinadai podum Tamilagam’ in Coimbatore, the Chief Minister attacked Stalin referring to his posing with a ‘Vel’ (spear-associated with the Hindu God Murugan) in hand as an act of deceit with political motivations.

“All those who denigrated the God were now enacting a drama by holding the ‘Vel’ for the Assembly polls. They think of God only during the polls. If only Stalin seeks votes by speaking truth, the people may give the status of opposition party to DMK. ‘Vel’ gets visible to Stalin only when polls are round the corner. The God will give you (DMK) appropriate punishment through elections,” he said.

He also said that unlike DMK, the AIADMK sees all religions as equal. The AIADMK declared a public holiday for Thai poosam festival, he added.

The DMK chief was given a ‘Vel’ at a party function in Tiruvalluvar on Saturday.

Terming the ‘grama sabha’ meetings organised by the DMK as eyewash, the Chief Minister questioned the outcome of similar meetings organised during the last Lok Sabha polls.

“The DMK confused people by holding similar meetings and won the parliamentary polls. It has planned to create similar confusion among people and win this poll too. But people should think whether the DMK fulfilled any of the promises given by it. Stalin tries to gain political mileage by delivering false promises,” he said.

Hitting out at the DMK over dynasty politics, the Chief Minister said that DMK is a corporate firm with Stalin as its chairman and his son Udhayanidhi Stalin, MP Kanimozhi and former MP Dayanithi Maran as directors.

Listing out the various achievements of the AIADMK government, including implementation of the 7.5 per cent horizontal reservation for government school students in medical admissions, the Chief Minister also exuded confidence that the AIADMK will definitely win the polls for the third successive term.

State BJP leader L Murugan said that people of Tamil Nadu will not believe the ‘new-found’ faith of DMK leader MK Stalin in God.

“Those who criticized the BJP’s Vel yatra and termed it as politics are now holding the ‘Vel’ for vote bank politics. People will never trust his new avatar,” he said. Murugan also said that people will gift ‘defeat’ to Rahul Gandhi wherever he campaigns.

“His visit to Tamil Nadu too may not have any impact,” he told reporters in Salem, while overseeing the works underway for the BJP’s state level conference. The BJP leader said that the DMK may split before the Assembly polls. He also exuded confidence that the BJP may send its legislators to the Assembly after this polls.