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Opposition united in its aim to defeat ‘autocratic’ regime of BJP: Tamil Nadu CM
Chief minister MK Stalin on Sunday said that the opposition across the country is united in its aim to defeat the “autocratic” regime of the BJP, even if his stance were to endanger the Tamil Nadu government
Chennai: Chief minister M K Stalin on Sunday said that the opposition across the country is united in its aim to defeat the “autocratic” regime of the BJP, even if his stance were to endanger the Tamil Nadu government.
“We have to be more mindful of who should not come to power than who should come to power,” he said. “Modi is scared of the building of the opposition…Even if it endangers our government here, we will oppose them.” Stalin was speaking at a party wedding event in Chennai. His statements come ahead of the second opposition meeting scheduled in Bengaluru later this month after the first meeting was held by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna in June.
The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government will begin disbursing one of its key election promises of handing over ₹1000 in cash every month for every eligible woman headed household. The state had released conditions for being a beneficiary of this scheme such as excluding families who own four wheelers, use 500 units of electricity per billing cycle which is being criticised by the opposition allies AIADMK and BJP.
“One crore women will benefit from this scheme,” Stalin said. “This has made some people jealous so they are criticising us,” he said, referring to the BJP-led Union government. He asked if the BJP had fulfilled any of its poll promises made before they were elected in 2014. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he will retrieve black money stashed abroad and use it for the welfare of the people,” Stalin said. “He said he will create jobs for two crore people every month. But none of those have been fulfilled.” He further lashed out at the BJP for turning a blind eye to civil protests such as the one by the wrestlers.
“Realising all this and to answer such an autocratic regime, all the opposition parties in India have united to bring a good solution to the country,” Stalin said. “Today a huge threat has come to India. We have a duty to save the country.”
The next opposition meeting in Bengaluru will be held on 17 and 18 of July to strategize for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP unit in Tamil Nadu has already warned of a protest if Stalin were to attend it given the dispute with Karnataka over the Mekedatu dam proposal. Thirty-two leaders from 15 Opposition parties came together at a mega meeting in Patna including Stalin, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi CM and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Maharashtra’s former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP’s Sharad Pawar
BJP state president K Annamalai rebutted that it is Stalin who is running a corrupt regime without fulfilling more than 90% of his promises even after two years of governing. “It is surprising that the chief minister of the corrupt DMK government does not know that in the last 9 years, black money worth 1.25 lakh crore rupees has been recovered and 6000 rupees are being paid into the bank accounts of 11 crore farmers in our country every year,” Annamalai said.
