Tamil Nadu: Edappadi Palaniswami rubbishes CM Stalin’s ‘AIADMK intimidated to join BJP alliance’ remark

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami dismissed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s claims that the former’s party was intimidated by the Bharatiya Janata Party to join the National Democratic Alliance. Palaniswami said his party was not afraid of Central agencies.

Rubbishing the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) claims, Palaniswami said AIADMK had nothing to fear and it was not afraid of Central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department, PTI reported. Palaniswami charged it was DMK ministers who were afraid of the Central agencies as they had “hidden loot money and did not know how to handle it”. “That was why the Central agencies were monitoring them and as a result, the DMK ministers spoke out of fear,” PTI reported quoting Palaniswami.

In a meeting of DMK’s district secretaries on Saturday, Stalin charged the BJP was misusing Central agencies against opposition-governed states. The party passed a resolution against the Centre and said, "This meeting of the district party secretaries strongly condemns the Union BJP government, which is creating an undeclared Emergency." 

Accusing the BJP of "vendetta politics", DMK leader Stalin charged while the CBI, ED and the Income Tax department should function impartially, the BJP government has made these institutions receive flak at the hands of courts for using such institutions for the sake of political vendetta, PTI reported.

DMK alleged that the Union government misused its agencies to intimidate parties such as the AIADMK to sign up for an alliance with the BJP. The DMK said it would legally face the vendetta action against them.