M K Stalin's mud-slinging campaign bound to fail: Tamil Nadu CM

Salem: Lambasting the DMK president M K Stalin again over his party organising 'Panchayat Sabhas' in villages across the State, the AIADMK leader and Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami accused the former of "deliberately spreading falsehoods" about the ruling party's performance.

"The opposition leader is unable to take us on politically and hence takes short cuts by spreading canards at village meetings that no benefit has accrued from the AIADMK government, "Mr. Palaniswami said here after laying the foundation stone for three new flyovers at Kandhampatti in Salem with a Rs.40 crore outlay.

"Stalin is suddenly discovering that villages are like temples; I was born and brought up in a village but he is a city-bred man and does not know the facts," Palaniswami said taking a swipe at the opposition leader.     

Stating that former Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, with a view to fulfill all the basic requirements of a village had planned and executed a huge basket of schemes for rural development, Mr Palaniswami said, “unable to stomach our (AIADMK) achievements”, Stalin had been spreading a disinformation campaign at the Panchayat Sabhas in a bid to somehow topple this government.  But his efforts will not succeed, he asserted.

Dismissing Stalin's allegations as baseless, Mr. Palaniswami said whether it was empowering women self help groups or ensuring basic needs of villages, the AIADMK government has been “fulfilling every requirement of the people.”

He also accused Stalin of trying to stall the Pongal hamper and cash dole scheme recently through a proxy petition in the Madras High court. “But we will implement this scheme even better in the future,” Palaniswami added.