Will AIADMK Put NEET As Precondition For Ties, Asks Stalin

Chennai:Chief Minister M K Stalin asked the AIADMK the direct question if they would put forth NEET – either getting exemption for Tamil Nadu from the medical entrance examination or its total elimination – as a pre-condition for the continuation of its alliance with the BJP.

With NEET rearing its head with regularity amidst debates and discussions, engendering a blame game, in the Assembly, Stalin said on Monday that by putting the past behind them, would the AIADMK tell its ally, the BJP, that their alliance would not be possible if NEET continued as a thorn in the flesh of the coalition.

Whenever the NEET issue cropped up, the AIADMK camp would remind all around that it was first envisaged during the UPA regime with the DMK being a part of it and the DMK would defend itself saying that the implementation of the entrance examination for medical colleges happened only under the AIADMK government.

Since the blame game continued on Monday, too, Stalin said whoever made the mistake, it needed to be rectified now and that could be done only by the Union BJP Government. So, as an ally of the BJP, would the AIADMK make NEET removal as a pre-condition for the continuation of the alliance, he asked.

To the AIADMK’s bid to turn the tables by accusing the DMK of reneging in its election promise of providing relief for medical aspirants in the State from NEET, Stalin said that it would have been done without any hassles if the INDIA coalition, in which the DMK was a part, had won the elections.

Now that the BJP had returned to power, would its ally in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK, put pressure to withdraw the entrance examination, he asked.

To the specific charge of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami that the DMK had cheated the people by going back on its words in doing away with NEET, Stalin said the AIADMK had also gone back on its word with regard to the alliance with the BJP.

Recalling that Palaniswami had said even two month earlier that there would be no alliance with the BJP not only in 2026 but also in 2031, he asked if it did not amount to cheating the people.

Many members from both the ruling and opposition benches participated in the debate that was nothing but a bid to hurl allegations at each other and an assertion on their winning the 2026 elections. Both the parties were blaming the other and trying to establish that they had lost their popularity among the voters.