Chennai: Alleging that the ruling AIADMK and its allies including the BJP at the Centre were currently busy 'distributing cash' to voters across Tamil Nadu in a bid to induce the electorate to vote in their favour in the April 18 Lok Sabha polls and 18 by-elections to the Assembly, the DMK president M K Stalin deplored the poll authorities silence over this shocking development in the eleventh hour.
The Election Commission (EC), police department and flying squads “are all only targeting the opposition parties, ordinary folks including farmers, traders and the middle class in the name of vehicle checks and seizures, but doing nothing to stop the huge cash distribution by the ruling AIADMK and its allies to voters under their very nose,” Stalin said in a message to the people on the last day of campaigning on Tuesday.
Charging that the official machinery was “indirectly helping the ruling party” to distribute cash to voters, Stalin recalled that during the 2016 Assembly elections, despite an estimated Rs.650 crore spent by the ruling party then, the AIADMK had won the polls over its nearest DMK rival by a mere 1.10 percentage point difference in valid votes polled.”
The ruling party with the help of BJP at the Centre could be ready to spend even more this time, thanks to the “gains of demonetization” that accrued to select few corporate houses and businessmen, but a “silent, massive wave” against the AIADMK-BJP opportunistic combine in this election is already exasperating them, Stalin said. The winds of change are “clearly in favour of the DMK-led secular, progressive alliance”, and people “are ready to bring about a change at both the Centre and the State through their democratic right to vote, he emphasised.
However, the DMK cadres should not be complacent and ensure that each and every vote for the DMK-Congress-Left-MDMK-IUML-VCK-KMDK alliance is not allowed to be snatched away from their kitty, Stalin extolled. With the ruling dispensation allegedly planning even 'booth capturing', party and booth-level workers of the DMK and its allies should be extra vigilant and concentrate to ensure that “each and every vote in every Assembly segment for the DMK-led front is not lost out to the “political predators”, said Mr. Stalin. He called upon them to be firm and yet restrained in the democratic battle field as 'taught by our late leader Kalaignar Karunanidhi' in countering the 'unleashing of money power' by the ruling party.
“Victory is achieved by being extremely focused on our goal and that strategy will defeat the ruling party's money power,” explained Stalin.
Stating that he found during his last 25 days of intense campaign, from the love and affection showered on him and the party by the huge mass of people who turned out at various rallies, that they were ready to overthrow the 'dictatorial' BJP at the Centre and the 'servile' AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu, Stalin also explained in detail the 'unison of approach' between DMK and Congress as seen in their respective election manifestos and the support of their allies. The Congress party's secular nationalism is embracing the Dravidian ethos, which is seen in issues such as 'NEET' and restoring of States' rights, said, Mr. Stalin, adding, he was optimistic of the DMK-front sweeping the elections.
