Tamil Nadu polls a battle for state autonomy, says Udhayanidhi

Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin urged voters to back the DMK decisively, calling the election a battle for state autonomy, while highlighting welfare schemes and targeting the opposition during a rally in Viralimalai

Viralimalai (Tamil Nadu): DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sunday said that the April 23 electoral contest in the state is a decisive battle for state autonomy, and argued for sending the “Delhi Team” back home.

This election “is a war between the Delhi Team and the Tamil Nadu Team,” he said.

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“We are the Tamil Nadu Team…we must send the Delhi Team back to where they came from with a decisive win,” he said.

Addressing a massive rally in Viralimalai Assembly constituency in Pudukottai district, he urged the electorate to break the “remote control” Delhi uses to try and control Tamil Nadu.

Udhayanidhi attacked the opposition, specifically targeting incumbent MLA and AIADMK candidate C Vijayabaskar, calling him a “drama company actor” who is part of a “slave group” being threatened by the CBI and ED.

The Deputy Chief Minister detailed the infrastructure and welfare achievements of the “Dravidian Model” government, specifically mentioning quality road works worth Rs 25 crore for 30 km and drinking water connections worth Rs 17 crore in the region.

He also claimed that the DMK revived the laptop scheme for college students after the AIADMK abandoned it in 2019. Looking towards a second term, he promised that the government would increase the women’s entitlement amount to Rs 2,000 and build 10 lakh houses under the “Kalaignar Kanavu Illam” initiative for those without homes.

Invoking his political lineage, he told the local cadre to set a high target, noting that while the party lost the seat by a narrow margin previously, this time the DMK must win by a margin of “50,000 votes to drive away the slave group”.