Campaign in Chennai hots up like the weather
Chennai: As the temperature in Chennai and its surroundings shot up, the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls too turned intense with top honchos of various parties descending to canvass for their candidates and also hitting out at rival parties, hurling and answering charges even as they drove through the roads in open vehicle on Wednesday before the heat wave touched its pinnacle at noon.
BJP State Vice President V P Duraisamy sought to answer the questions raised by Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin on the claims of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with regard to the allocation of funds for flood relief while seeking votes for his party’s North Chennai candidate R C Paul Kanagaraj at Korukupet.
Duraisamy said that when funds were given to a State by the Union Government, a utility certificate had been given on the expenditure of the money and the Union Minister had only stressed on that. But Stalin had gone overboard by crying foul and accusing Sitharaman of behaving like a usurious money lender.
Since the Union Government had made available funds to the tune of over Rs 4000 for building infrastructure to prevent funds and then another Rs 950 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) already, Sitaraman had wanted to know how the money was spent by the State Government, Duraisamy said.
Though the Chief Minister had sought Rs 37,000 crore as relief from the Union Government, in the petition filed in the Supreme Court he had only asked for Rs 2000 crore, he said and wanted to know the reason for the anomaly. Hitting out at the DMK for its alleged misrule, he said that the BJP would win 22 of the 39 constituencies in the State.
Overwhelmed by his own strident attack against the Union BJP government, MDMK founder Vaiko forgot to name the candidate for whom he was canvassing and had to get back the microphone after concluding his passionate speech to mention the name of Dayanidhi Maran and ask the people to vote for him.
He was speaking from a open van at Ayanavaram in Central Chennai constituency when he referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vow to finish off the DMK and averred that no one could finish off the DMK, which provided excellent administration in the State.
DMDK general secretary, Premalatha Vijayakanth, too, attacked the BJP in her campaign at Thiruvallur constituency for her party candidate Nallathambi, and said that the BJP was trying to arm twist her into submission and force her to join its alliance. Though there were threats of freezing the party’s bank accounts, she took the bold step of aligning with the AIADMK for the welfare of the people, she said.
A similar charge against the BJP government was also made by Naam Tamilar Katchi Chief Coordinator Seeman, who was also in the Central Chennai constituency area, canvassing for his party candidate Karthikeyan. Attacking the BJP government for blocking his erstwhile election symbol for resisting its overtures to rope his party into its coalition, he said that those parties that gave in were given their respective symbols.
He said the Election Commission of India was acting like a drama company, allotting the TMC, PMK and AMMK their old symbols – Bicycle, Mango and Pressure Cooker - after they decided to go along with the BJP in the elections, Seeman said.
He wanted the people to favour his party in the April 19 elections as they had only faced disappointment by voting for the DMK, AIADMK, Congress and BJP in the past 60 years.