EPS goes around TN to meet people, not confines himself to Chennai: Jayakumar

CHENNAI: Senior leader and former AIADMK minister D Jayakumar dared the DMK party and its leaders to contest the forthcoming elections without alliance. He also defended the absence of AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami in the state capital by stating that he has been going around the state to meet people.

"Will the DMK party, its leaders M K Stalin, Udhayanidhi Stalin and R S Bharathi contest the Lok Sabha polls without the alliance partners. We have confidence that our leader Edappadi K Palaniswami with the help of the people would hand down defeat to the evil force like DMK, " said Jayakumar in a statement to counter R S Bharathi's statement, ridiculing Palaniswami as "Tholvi Swami" (Tholvi means defeat).

He recollected the AIADMK's victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and 2016 assembly polls and said that the AIADMK went solo in the polls. He also hit out at the DMK that it lost its position as opposition party in the 2011 polls.

On criticism of Palaniswami's absence in Chennai and limiting himself to Salem, Jayakumar said that Salem was also part of the state. He continued that Palaniswami stays in Chennai half of the week and goes around the state in the remaining districts to meet the people. "Unlike DMK leader M K Stalin, who confined himself to Chennai when he was an opposition leader, our leader is going around the state to meet people, meeting party cadres and interacting with media to expose the DMK government's atrocities, " he said.