DMK blaming Centre, as it couldn’t fulfill poll promise: BJP

CHENNAI: In a bid to conceal its inability to deliver upon its poll assurances, the DMK government resorted to blame the Centre on plethora of issues including fuel prices, BJP Tamil Nadu Chief K Annamalai claimed on Thursday.

He accused the State government of coming out with excuses for not implementing its election promises and said this was 'unacceptable.' “Since the last 6 months the Centre had reduced Rs 14.5 per litre petrol and Rs 17 for litre diesel, whereas the State had reduced a mere Rs 3,” Annamalai said.

The fuel prices were cheaper in neighbouring Puducherry and also in certain States such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, compared to Tamil Nadu, he claimed.

“How can the Central government be blamed for the DMK's inability to fulfill its election promises?” Annamalai asked during a press conference here. The Tamil Nadu government should stop blaming the Centre and instead take steps to honour its poll promise of reducing the prices by Rs 5 and Rs 4 per litre petrol and diesel, respectively, and LPG price by Rs 100, promised in the run up to Assembly election last year.

Referring to DMK MP Kanimozhi raising the issue in the Parliament, he urged her to advise Chief Minister M K Stalin to implement the party’s poll promises and desist from targetting Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Also, the BJP chief said State Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan's accusation of the Centre with regard to allocation to Tamil Nadu and GST dues was like “concealing the entire pumpkin in rice”.

The Narendra Modi government had extended over Rs 39,000 crore grant-in-aid to Tamil Nadu and during the last 8 years, the BJP government provided Rs 7.5 lakh crore for infrastructure development in the State, he claimed.

“The DMK government has unreasonably increased the prices of food products and is spreading half-truths that these were basis of the recommendations of the GST council,” he said.

“Unfortunately, Thiaga Rajan conveniently chose not to address this price rise in its entirety,” Annamalai said and wondered if the DMK’s allies endorsed his views.

On former Telecommunication Minister A Raja’s allegation of irregularities in the 5G Spectrum auction, the BJP president said the former has no locus standi to talk on the issue.

“I would be constrained to talk about the 2G Spectrum scam. During Raja’s tenure it was auctioned on first-come-first served basis and not through a transparent tendering process as was done on Monday,” Annamalai claimed.

The 5G Spectrum was India’s biggest ever auction with bids upwards of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, he said and asked Raja to raise the issue in the Parliament.

Taking strong exception to the DMK MPs targetting the Union Finance Minister, Annamalai said no reason was given by the DMK and allies in staging a walk out when Sitharaman was replying in Tamil.

“They should apologise for insulting the Tamil people by walking out of the Parliament when Sitharaman was replying in Tamil,” he said.