CHENNAI: Chief minister MK Stalin on Thursday asked the party cadre of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to win all 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state and the lone seat in neighbouring Puducherry in the 2024 general elections.
“Our goal should be narpathum namathe, naadum namathe (40 seats are ours and the country is ours),” Stalin said on Thursday during a party conference held in Virudhunagar district, recalling occasions when the party MPs showered praises in the Lok Sabha on Dravidian stalwarts such as Anna, ‘Periyar’ E V Ramaswamy and M Karunanidhi.
“If we want to retain that pride, we have to win 40 out 40 seats,” Stalin said. “We have a duty towards the entire country. We have to spread our ideals of federalism, state autonomy, secularism, social justice, and equality.”
Stalin said the electoral fight was directly between the state and the union government; the DMK-led secular progressive alliance and the BJP.
The DMK-led coalition fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections under Stalin’s leadership - his father M Karunanidhi died in August 2018 - and swept the polls winning 38 out of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, owing to an anti-AIADMK-BJP wave. He urged his cadre to repeat the performance. For now, the DMK’s rainbow alliance with a combination of Left, Dalit and Muslim parties to keep the ‘secular alliance’ is still intact.
Stalin said that while the Aryan model divides people as superior and inferior, the Dravidian model is based on social justice and equality. This has ensured that Tamil Nadu was at the top in various development indices, second only to Maharashtra in its GDP, the chief minister added. A book on ‘Dravidian Model’ authored by Stalin was released during the event. The event was conducted on Thursday clubbing the birth anniversary of DMK founder C N Annadurai and the foundation day of the DMK to give away awards to party functionaries.
{{/usCountry}}Stalin said that while the Aryan model divides people as superior and inferior, the Dravidian model is based on social justice and equality. This has ensured that Tamil Nadu was at the top in various development indices, second only to Maharashtra in its GDP, the chief minister added. A book on ‘Dravidian Model’ authored by Stalin was released during the event. The event was conducted on Thursday clubbing the birth anniversary of DMK founder C N Annadurai and the foundation day of the DMK to give away awards to party functionaries.
{{/usCountry}}He reiterated that they will never accept the Union government’s push for Hindi as the unifying language and accused the Centre of trying to implement a dual governance model through the appointment of Governor R N Ravi.
“GST has deprived our right to finance and NEET deprived our right to education,” Stalin said. “Several programmes of the union government are against public welfare. To stop all this, our coalition should win all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and go to the parliament.”