CM EPS to embark on tornado AIADMK campaign to 17 districts in election-bound Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi Palaniswami will embark on a two-day tornado campaign across 17 districts in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, commencing his journey from Salem and concluding the campaign at Thiruvarur. CM EPS will be joined by other AIADMK ministers as the race to the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections heats up. Elections are scheduled to be held in Tamil Nadu in a single-phase, with the polling of votes on April 6 followed by the counting and declaration of results on May 2. CM EPS' tornado tour across the 17 districts will witness the AIADMK leader canvassing for the candidates to be fielded by the party from those constituencies. 

EPS: 'We have delivered what DMK promised'

CM E Palaniswami remained confident of his re-election, dismissing DMK's tall promises in its election manifesto released on Saturday.  Listing the plethora of freebies announced by his government ranging from loan waivers, pongal gift etc, he said that while DMK was only promising, AIADMK had already delivered. Dismissing DMK's '200+ prediction' and several pre-election opinion polls, he said that AIADMK had proved them wrong in 2016, by-polls and will continue to do so. 

"They have just now released it officially. (Farm waiver) not an election manifesto, our govt did what people expected before all. Ours is the only govt that announced loan waiver and implemented it immediately. This is not for elections, farmers were suffering from drought, rains, and flood and hence they demanded to waive off cooperative loans when I went to various field visits. We will win the elections with a sweeping majority, How can I say the exact numbers? People only will vote, Is Stalin an astrologer to say 200?," he said speaking to reporters.

AIADMK-led NDA alliance

AIADMK finalized its alliance with Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), allowing the latter to field candidates from 23 constituencies under the alliance. Meanwhile, AIADMK alloted 20 seats to NDA ally BJP along with the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency where the saffron party plans to field Pon Radhakrishnan. Former AIADMK ally All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi has decided to opt-out of the alliance and has joined hands with Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam. Captain' Vijaykanth's DMDK decided to pull out of the AIADMK-led NDA alliance ahead of Assembly elections in the state. DMDK's move to split with NDA comes after multiple rounds of seat-sharing talks between DMDK and AIADMK remained inconclusive. Earlier, DMDK had demanded AIADMK to allot the same number of seats given to PMK and had threatened to exit the alliance if the demand wasn't met. 

Tamil Nadu Assembly polls

The TN elections will be held on April 6 and the result will be declared on May 2. The two warring factions in AIADMK - of Deputy CM O Pannerselvam (OPS) and CM E Palaniswamy (EPS), reconciled after the party named incumbent E Palaniswamy as its CM candidate and O Panneerselvam as the chief of the 11-member steering committee. He has also announced a slew of social measures like Pongal gift hampers, farm loan waiver, free COVID-19 vaccines, passing school students, etc which has been slammed by DMK M K Stalin calling it 'pre-poll appeasement'.  Meanwhile, ex-CM Karunanidhi's successor - DMK chief MK Stalin eyes his maiden CM term as DMK cannot afford to lose a third straight Assembly election after sweeping the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with 38 seats. 

Image credits: @AIADMKOfficial / Twitter