‘Anna’ makes us stand tall, says Stalin on 116 birth anniversary of Dravidian icon

CHENNAI: On Sunday, Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin paid rich tributes to the party founder and former Chief Minister CN Annadurai, on the occasion of his 116th birth anniversary on Sunday.

According to the statement issued by the state government, CM Stalin and his Cabinet colleagues paid floral tributes to the portrait of Annadurai at Anna Salai here.

Stalin also visited the Valluvar Kottam and Anna Arivalayam (DMK headquarters) and paid tributes to the portrait of Annadurai to mark the occasion.

"It was CN Annadurai, who made us stand tall. For 75 years, the DMK has brought many reforms in the society. I praise and bow down to ‘Perundhagai’ Anna, the great scholar and a tall leader of TN who made us function as a government of one single race," Stalin said in a social media post.

Meanwhile at Anna Arivalayam, Stalin unveiled the logo for the DMK's platinum jubilee celebrations, which will be celebrated on September 17 as ‘Mupperum Vizha’.

Ministers Duraimurugan, I Periyasamy, KN Nehru, K Ponmudy, RS Rajakannappan, PK Sekarbabu, Ma Subramanian, Udhayanidhi Stalin, MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy, Mayor R Priya and others accompanied Stalin.

Later that day, CM Stalin and Cabinet colleagues visited the Communist Party of India (Marxist) state headquarters in T Nagar and paid floral tributes to the portrait of late CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Vijay lauds Arignar Anna

Actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam's president Vijay also lauded the Dravidian icon CN Annadurai on his 116th birth anniversary.

In a statement, Vijay said, "On the birth anniversary of ‘Anna’, who created a new history in Tamil Nadu's political landscape by legalising self-respect marriages, changing the name of 'Madras State' to 'Tamil Nadu', and implementing the two language formula (Tamil and English). We will forever indebted for the contributions he made."