Not subservient, but cordial with Centre: CM Palaniswami

Speaking after distributing welfare assistance at a function in RK Nagar here, he said that at the party-level the AIADMK and BJP were separate and had their own different ideologies. 

“Our ideology is different. Their ideology is different. Their party is different our party is different. But when it comes to governance, schemes needed for the people could be implemented only if cordial ties are maintained with the central government,” he said. 

He was countering the charge by opposition parties and sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran, who won from the RK Nagar assembly constituency in the byelection in last December, that the ruling party and the state government were acting according to the diktats of the BJP-led central government. 

Pointing to the proposed second phase of Chennai Metro project to be taken up at a cost of Rs 79,000 crore, Palaniswami said late chief minister Jayalalithaa wanted to implement the expansion project. 

His government had taken it up with the Centre which had assured to consider it, he said adding their “Amma (Jayalalithaa) government is implementing her wishes.” The present government had implemented the schemes envisaged by Jayalalithaa such as the ‘Amma two-wheeler’ scheme for working women, an electoral promise by made by her in 2016. 

The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of the 70th birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa, he noted. It was because of the cordial equations, the Central government had announced infrastructural projects worth several thousands crores to Tamil Nadu, he said.