TN-DMK-CM

CM dismisses DMK's village connect programme as poll "gimmick"
Salem (TN), Jan 16 (PTI) Hitting out at arch rival DMK,
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Wednesday said the
main opposition party's village outreach programme was a mere
gimmick with an eye on the Lok Sabha polls.
Palaniswami, who is also the ruling AIADMK
co-coordinator, alleged DMK leaders neither visited the people
in villages when they were in power nor when in opposition
since 2011.
DMK president M K Stalin has launched on Jan 9 his
party's village level outreach programme across Tamil Nadu
with the slogan "let us meet the people, tell them and win
over their hearts."
"He (Stalin) was a Local Administration Minister (during
the DMK regime in 2006-11) and at that time how many villages
and people did he visit and implement programmes for them..?
Nothing was done," Palaniswami said.
Unlike the DMK, the AIADMK had always been in contact
with residents of villages and listening to their grievances
and addressing them, he said.
"This (village outreach programme) is a fake
advertisement. Now the Lok Sabha poll is round the corner and
with an eye on it, they are enacting a drama called gram saba
meet aimed at deceiving the people," he said.
Earlier, Palaniswami inaugurated a 'manimandapam,'
(memorial) for late Chief Ministers and AIADMK stalwarts
M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa here built by the city
corporation and unveiled their life size bronze statues.
Without naming any party, the Chief Minister also said
opposition parties were deliberately propagating a "lie" and
such fake and wrong propaganda will be exposed with the
support of the people.
Palaniswami's remark is seen as an apparent reference to
the Kodanad estate theft row over which the DMK has sought his
resignation and a probe by a Special Investigation Team.
On January 11, a former magazine editor Samuel Mathew had
released a video clip in Delhi, alleging that Palaniswami had
links to a break-in at Kodanad estate bungalow (it was used by
late Jayalalithaa as her camp office) in 2017.
Following this, DMK had demanded the resignation of Chief
Minister. Palaniswami had refuted the allegations saying those
who were unable to take on AIADMK politically were resorting
to such cheap acts and asserted that a probe would expose
their identity. PTI VGN
VS VS