DMK turns poll rhetoric to State rights, fund devolution to pin down saffron party

Unfazed by the tirade launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the vexed Katchatheevu issue, the DMK led by Chief Minister MK Stalin has restricted its campaign to subjects having an impact on present-day such as state rights, controversies around the devolution of taxes and allocation of funds for projects in Tamil Nadu by the Union government.

Stalin who has been leading the charge against the BJP, has sharply questioned the alleged under-allocation of GST dues to the state. Rally after rally, the Chief Minister has slammed Modi’s government for not releasing ‘promised’ funds for Chennai Metro Rail phase-II.

Stalin’s campaign rhetoric is also fraught with questions to the Union government on not allocating flood relief assistance to the state. The DMK president was equally vocal in raking up the alleged abuse of central agencies such as ED, CBI and IT against the opposition and exploitation of such agencies in mopping up ‘donations’ through electoral bonds, now declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Sparing a good portion of his speech for the achievements of his threeyear-old regime, Stalin also does not fail to highlight the arrest of Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal and uses it to pin down the BJP.

The rest of the DMK leaders and even a few allies rightly take a cue from the CM and fire broadsides at the BJP in the campaign. Sports minister Udhayanidhi Stalin used the remark ‘Mr 29 paise’ to take a swipe at the PM highlighting the under-allocation of GST tax share from the central kitty.

Stalin also dedicates time to raising the CAA-NRC issues in his campaign, targeting the minority votes. Alluding to a tacit understanding between AIADMK and BJP, former allies of the previous polls, Stalin tries to bog down Edappadi K Palaniswami. In a fitting reply, the Leader of the Opposition makes it a point to take a swipe at the 38 sitting INDIA bloc MPs from the state for not doing enough in the last five years. EPS also leaves no stone unturned to question the performance of the DMK government in the state.

The leaders of the Dravidian majors set the tone of the elections so much that the state unit BJP president K Annamalai slammed that DMK and AIADMK were campaigning as if the April 19 polls weren’t for Lok Sabha but rather for the State Assembly or the local bodies. EPS sharply trained his guns at the DMK mostly on the nepotism front besides responding daily to minister Udhayanidhi, both of whom were engaged in a statement war over who ‘sinned’ by

Stalin’s campaign rhetoric is sharp on questions to the Union government on not allocating flood relief assistance to the State. The DMK president is equally vocal in raking up the alleged abuse of central agencies such as ED, CBI

warming up to the PM on the dais in recent years.

Starkly different from them was Annamalai who has found a newfound love for Katchatheevu. The BJP has been going gung ho over the Katchatheevu issue, of course after substantially raking up the nepotism and corruption issues against the DMK. Annamalai and co have been channelling their energy on merely targeting the DMK while returning the favours to the AIADMK by largely avoiding any vigorous critique of EPS.