People were awaiting the local bodies elections to teach the DMK a fitting lesson for having come to power with misleading promises, AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam said.
“If the AIADMK, which was on the cusp of its third consecutive victory in the Assembly elections, had slipped by a slight margin, it was because the people had believed the promises made by the DMK,” he said.
“But the DMK stands exposed today for reneging on its promises to abolish NEET, provide ₹5,000 per family cardholder (after criticising the previous AIADMK regime for providing only ₹2,500), deposit ₹1,000 per month into the bank accounts of homemakers, raise the old-age pension to ₹1,500, waive education loans and increase the number of workdays under MGNREGS from 100 to 150,” he pointed out.
People were now “in agony” for believing the “false promises” and voting the DMK into power, and had even started questioning its “empty rhetoric”, Mr. Panneerselvam said, while campaigning for his party’s candidates for the local bodies elections.
The refrain of the Chief Minister that the DMK government had four more years to fulfil its promises was ludicrous, Mr. Panneerselvam said. The people’s disgust with the DMK had soared after the distribution of the Pongal gift hampers last month. The “substandard quality” of the items in the gift hampers provided to cardholders was in stark contrast to the personal attention shown by late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to make sure that only good quality products reached the people, he added.
The 30 years of AIADMK rule in Tamil Nadu since the time of late Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran had been of historic significance. In particular, the gross enrolment rate in higher education was increased to 52% during Jayalalithaa’s regime. Though late Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi belonged to the delta region, it was only under the leadership of Jayalalithaa that a legally-binding solution was found to the sharing of Cauvery water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, he said.
Despite the “conspiracy” that Karunanidhi indulged in by “foisting cases”, the late AIADMK leader prevailed and succeeded in increasing the membership of the party from 18 lakh to 1.5 crore, making it “unshakeable”, Mr. Panneerselvam said.