CHENNAI: The Assembly on Monday witnessed a verbal clash between Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Opposition leader M.K. Stalin over the poll promises made during the recent Lok Sabha election and Assembly bypolls campaign.
Participating in the debate on the demands for grants for environment and forest department in the House on Monday, DMK member Udayasuriyan referred to the DMK-led alliance winning 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state (including Puducherry) and 13 of the 22 bypolls in the state. “This is a record feat by Stalin,” the DMK member asserted.
But cooperatives minister Sellur Raju from the Treasury benches stood up to say it was not a record. During the 2014 Parliamentary election, Jayalalithaa had won 37 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu alone for the AIADMK, “as a single party without any alliance.” “You have done this with help of several alliance parties,” the minister quipped in retort.
Then, Chief Minister Palaniswami interrupted to say that during the last election DMK gave false promises to the people like loan waiver. They (DMK) have 'cheated' the people like 'cheating' children by giving lollypop, and got votes in the election with false promises, charged Palaniswami.
Joining issue with the Chief Minister, Stalin responded that the DMK had not made any false promises. “We said if we come to power we will implement these promises; we did not cheat the people; soon we will come back to power and we will implement the promises that we gave them,” countered the DMK leader.
Palaniswami then stood up to say that just like the DMK had won now after having lost its deposit in the previous bypoll from R K Nagar, the AIADMK will win the election next time.
