AIADMK move to sack MLAs shows fear of poll debacle: Puducherry CM

The Puducherry Chief Minister paid a visit to Madurai and offered prayers at Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple. Speaking to reporters, he said that the move by AIADMK was aimed at weakening the opposition party. Citing earlier disqualification of 18 MLAs, who are now under the fold of AMMK, by Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal and the likely disqualification of three more MLAs, who recently supported Dhinakaran, he said such acts were murder of democracy. The Speaker was acting on his own and crossing his limits.

He was optimistic that the Congress led alliance would emerge victorious in the recently held Lok Sabha polls and said Rahul Gandhi, Congress president would become Prime Minister and MK Stalin, DMK president, would be the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

The outcome of bypolls to 18 Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu would also result in favour of the DMK, he added.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said since southern states had been ignored by the Centre, Congress president Rahul Gandhi decided to contest from Wayanad in Kerala. The outcome of polls held recently in five northern states proved the strength of Congress party. Since the party high command did not want Priyanka Gandhi, general secretary of Congress, to contest from Varanasi, she withdrew from the contest, he informed.

Criticising the Centre, he said Tamil Nadu was ill treated by the Centre, which only provided Rs 500 crore as compensation to victims of Cyclone Gaja that struck Delta districts, while the state sought compensation of Rs 15,000 crore.

The Puducherry government is prepared to tackle any impact of Cyclone Fani, which is predicted to cross the coast, he added.