Last year’s Chennai floods on lips of Modi, Jaya this election season
With all political parties gearing up for the final leg of their campaigns in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, one issue has been talked about by all contenders: Last year's devastating floods in Chennai.
With all political parties gearing up for the final leg of their campaigns in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, one issue has been talked about by all contenders: Last year's devastating floods in Chennai.
"When the floods were happening in Chennai and the people were dying, the Centre was the first to stand by you," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally in the state capital on Friday.
The topic of the floods was also high on chief minister J Jayalalithaa's agenda when she began her final campaign in her constituency of RK Nagar in north Chennai on Friday. "I personally came and saw the damage that the floods had done," the AIADMK leader said. "I personally met you all and promised to stand by and help you."
The ruling AIADMK had faced allegations of inaction over the floods and was slammed by political parties for not being the first to organise relief efforts for the affected regions.
"It was the incompetence of the ruling AIADMK that caused the floods," said former Union finance minister P Chidambaram in Chennai. The veteran Congress leader was campaigning on behalf of the party's candidate, Karate R Thiagarajan, in the affluent area of Mylapore.
Jayalalithaa also had come under fire over allegations that her party workers had stopped trucks carrying relief material from outside of Chennai to post stickers of the chief minister on them.