DMK fumes at Amit Shah''s corruption jab

CHENNAI: The DMK on Thursday hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's corruption remarks vis-a-vis the delimitation issue and said it is usual of the senior BJP leader to criticise the government of the day in the state, whenever he visits TN.

Shah will be in Chennai on Friday and is likely to review the functioning of the party and may also discuss alliance ahead of the 2026 state polls.

Senior DMK leader and Organisation Secretary R S Bharathi dubbed Shah's comments as a "lie."

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised eradicating corruption if voted to power but was "only using corruption allegations to subdue opposition parties."

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had in 2023 pointed out alleged irregularities to the tune of "Rs 7.50 lakh crore" in various central initiatives, Bharathi said in a post on 'X.'

"Whenever Amit Shah comes to Tamil Nadu, he has made it a point to criticise anyone ruling the state as corrupt. He did that in 2018, saying Tamil Nadu was the most corrupt state," he said and pointed out that the state was under the AIADMK rule led by Edappadi K Palaniswami then.

"The very next year, he (Shah) faced the 2019 polls with Palaniswami," he said about the BJP-AIADMK alliance for the Lok Sabha polls that year. This alliance continued for the 2021 state election also, Bharathi added.

The DMK leader, pointing out to some ED and IT searches earlier at the properties of some AIADMK former ministers, asked what was the status of those.

"Will Shah explain during his TN visit? All these CBI, ED searches related to the AIADMK period is just a drama," he charged.

Talking about the issue of delimitation vis-a-vis Tamil Nadu earlier, Shah said these issues were being raked up by the state government to "cover up" its "rampant" corruption, taking a swipe at the DMK.

Any south India-based voter or political party should not worry about delimitation as the exercise will be carried out on pro-rata basis, Shah said.

He also chided the political dispensation of Tamil Nadu, saying they do not want elections to take place on real issues.

Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana are opposed to Parliamentary delimitation on population basis, saying it would lead to decline in their representation in Lok Saha.

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