DMK members unleashed barbaric attack on Jayalalithaa in TN Assembly: EPS

MADURAI: AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami told mediapersons on Sunday that former Chief Minister late J. Jayalalithaa faced brutal attack in the state Assembly on March 24, 1989.

It may be recalled that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had said that the statement of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament that Jayalalithaa was attacked by DMK men in the state Assembly was a ‘drama’.

Countering Stalin's statement, former Chief Minister EPS, as Palaniswami is popularly known, said that he as a legislator was witness to the barbaric attack Jayalalithaa was subjected to by DMK members, as he termed March 24, 1989 as the ‘Black Day’ for Tamil Nadu Assembly.

EPS said that then AIADMK legislators S. Thirunavakkarasu (now in Congress) and K.K.S.S.R Ramachandran (presently a minister in the DMK government) had tried to prevent the attack on the late Chief Minister by the DMK legislators. He also claimed said that a DMK leader, who is presently a senior minister in the Stalin government, had even pulled the saree of Jayalalithaa.

EPS said that Jayalalithaa had then vowed that she will return to the Assembly only as the Chief Minister, and in 1991, the people of Tamil Nadu helped her return to the Assembly as the CM with a huge majority.

The senior AIADMK leader said that he still vividly remembers the cruel act against a woman in the state Assembly by DMK members, adding that Stalin has made a false statement on the incident by saying that it was a ‘drama’.

EPS also said that the media had extensively reported the incident at that time.

The people of Tamil Nadu will give a befitting response to the DMK in next year's Lok Sabha elections in which the ruling party will face a crushing defeat, he said.

The former Chief Minister added that no action was taken against any DMK legislature for the barbaric act unleashed on a woman leader within the Assembly premises, which exposed DMK’s style of functioning.