LS Poll is second independence struggle; vote INDIA bloc to save democracy: CM Stalin

CHENNAI: Calling the April 19 Lok Sabha polls the "second independence struggle" of the nation, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday appealed to the people to vote for INDIA bloc to save democracy in the country.

Issuing an appeal to the people through a video and letter on the final day of the campaign, Stalin said, "The Parliamentary election is the second independence struggle of the country. You (people) must vote for the INDIA bloc if democracy is to survive in the country.

Stalin, who started his campaign from Trichy early last month and wound up his campaign at Besant Nagar in the city on Wednesday evening, said that even people who supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi were fed up with his corruption after the Electoral Bond expose.

"Even neutral voters have started seeing the true face of the BJP now. Electoral bonds have ripped off Modi's mask and exposed his corrupt face, " Stalin remarked, faulting Modi with defending the BJP on the electoral bond issue even after the facts were made public.

Wondering why the BJP-led union government refused to divulge the Electoral Bond details as soon as the Supreme Court asked, Stalin said, "Taking funds for the party is not the issue. How did you collect it? You engaged ED, CBI and IT and extracted funds from the companies through electoral bonds. First you unleashed raids, then you collected bonds. That is the problem," he added.

Modi is the VC of the corruption university.

Questioning Modi's silence on the CAG report unearthing a Rs 7.5 lakh crore scam in various schemes in the BJP regime, Stalin said, "Why were three CAG officials transferred?" Recalling the Rafale scam and disqualification of Rahul Gandhi after he questioned Modi's crony capitalism, the DMK president said, "Can (Modi) you talk about corruption after doing all this? If a university were to be constructed for corruption and a Vice Chancellor were to be appointed for it, Modi would be the most fitting choice. He is the embodiment of corruption. Now he has used made-in BJP washing machines to give clean chit to corrupt politicians."

Blaming the BJP for whipping up religious sentiments to divert public attention from its corruption, the CM said, "When we expose their communal propaganda, they call us corrupt and dynast. But Modi supports the corrupt and dynasts in their alliance."