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EPS slams Stalin for making son minister
Quashing EPS’s remarks, higher education minister K Ponmudi said: “He is being made a minister one-and-a-half years too late, according to me. He worked so hard for the (assembly) elections last year which has an appeal among youngsters. He should have been made a minister in the beginning”.
Leader of opposition in Tamil Nadu assembly Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) on Tuesday criticised the induction of Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) youth wing secretary and son of chief minister MK Stalin into the state cabinet calling it the “first step” towards him “being the head of corruption.”
Palaniswami’s remarks come a day after the chief minister recommended Udhayanidhi’s name to Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi, according to a statement for Raj Bhavan.Udhayanidhi will be sworn in on December 14 at 9.30 am at Durbar Hall, Raj Bhavan, Chennai, the statement added.
EPS said that Udhayanidhi Stalin being sworn in as a minister will make him the head of corruption in the DMK regime. EPS was speaking during AIADMK’s protest rally in Salem district against the state government’s price hike in property taxes, electricity tariff and milk.
“His focus is on making his son a minister. He (Stalin) doesn’t think about the poor and marginalised people who voted for the DMK.If Udhayanidhi becomes minister... will Tamil Nadu’s rivers swell with honey and milk? No. Already, there is corruption in all departments. He will come in to be the head of all the corruption,” said EPS.
The AIADMK interim general secretary pointed out that after late M Karunanidhi held the chief minister’s post, “it was his son Stalin’s turn”. “Now he (Stalin) is bringing his son Udhayanidhi to the forefront in the DMK... his coronation tomorrow (on Wednesday) is the first step,” EPS said.
However, quashing EPS’s remarks, higher education minister K Ponmudi said: “He is being made a minister one-and-a-half years too late, according to me. He worked so hard for the (assembly) elections last year which has an appeal among youngsters. He should have been made a minister in the beginning.”
Udhayanidhi, who is a first time MLA represents Chennai’s Chepauk-Triplicane constituency. He is expected to be allotted the portfolios of youth and sports welfare along with another with the responsibility of special programme implementation, which is presently with the chief minister, said people in the know of the developments .
Meanwhile, the mood is upbeat in the DMK. A room is being set up for the scion of DMK’s first family in the secretariat, Fort St George, in Chennai.
Udhayanidhi’s induction has set the pace for a succession plan at the party as well as the government level, said one of the people quoted above.
“In the future, he will come to hold more responsible positions,” Ponmudi said.
Targeting the AIADMK for its remarks, he said: “Nobody has been against this in the DMK. Why can’t son succeed his father in politics?” The opposition will keep criticising like they did when Stalin succeeded Karunanidhi, said Ponmudi , adding, “This happens in all parties. There is nothing wrong with it.”
Meanwhile DMK members in the know of the development said that the chief minister wanted him to deliver his work as a legislator before bringing him into the cabinet. “District secretaries and leaders wanted him to be made a minister early on. We thought it will happen this July but the chief minister kept it on hold,” said a DMK leader, requesting anonymity.
Udhayanidhi has acted in several films and owns a film production and distribution company by the name Red Giant Movies. Karunanidhi had brought in his son Stalin in his cabinet in the 2006-2011 period when he had already been a four-time legislator and held the post of Chennai mayor in 1996.
“There is nothing wrong in him becoming a minister. He is a legislator after all. But, why this hurry?” asked Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) founder TTV Dhinakaran who leads AIADMK’s breakaway faction. “Stalin seems to be in a hurry to make him a minister. Time will tell is the reason behind it.”
The BJP has not reacted to his induction so far.
