National parties aren’t dependable, says Palaniswami at GC

CHENNAI: The people of the state are the “master” of the AIADMK and it would fight the Lok Sabha polls to reverberate their master’s voice in the Parliament for their betterment, Palaniswami announced in the general council meeting held on Tuesday to quell the repeated question on the AIADMK’s choice of Prime Ministerial candidature.

“For us, the AIADMK, the people are our masters (Ejmanan). The party and its regime is for the people and not for the Prime Minister. Whenever the people of the state face an issue, we want to flag them in the Parliament to help them from the issue. For that, we want a member of Parliament,” Palaniswami said amidst the members of the general council and executive councils.

“There is no use in believing in the national parties. We are not seeing who the Prime Minister is,” the former CM said and continued that the party’s primary objective is to bring development projects and funds from the Centre for the prosperity of the people in the state, he said as a reason to pull out the party from the political quagmire ahead of the Lok Sabha party.

The AIADMK, since it quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, is facing the question that has no answer. Justifying the party’s stand to face the Lok Sabha polls with no PM face, the Salem strongman summed up that national parties, often put them in a difficult situation when the ally takes a policy decision that is against the interest of the people of the state.

Palaniswami’s explanation perfectly projected the situation of the AIADMK and its alliance with BJP since 2019 LS polls. “No more such situation. There is no use in believing the national parties,” he said and recollected the 37 AIADMK MPs who brought the Parliament to a standstill for 22 days over the Cauvery issue.

“Since we severed ties with the BJP, the DMK president MK Stalin lost his sleep and started to blabber,” said Palaniswami recalling Stalin’s remark in the floor of the Assembly that “sudden affection of the LoP towards minorities.”

He continued that the DMK regime did nothing for the welfare of the minorities since it voted to power in 2021 and noted that minorities realised it too.

“We have made it clear (to the minorities) that AIADMK have no alliance with the BJP,” Palaniswami said at the fag end of his 75 minutes speech, resulting in an immediate response amidst the functionaries, who whistled, clapped and raised slogans in joy and brought the marriage hall to life.

He concluded his speech by stating that the New Year will turn into a year of happiness for the AIADMK party and its functionaries.

Party treasurer Dindigul Sreenivasan submitted the expenditure details and said the party has savings to the tune of Rs 164.70 crore and fixed deposit of Rs 97.10 crore. It fetched revenue of Rs 1.11 crore and Rs 20.23 crore by selling forms for neww members’ enrollment and renewal forms for existing members respectively.