O Panneerselvam slams MK Stalin over yagam for CM post'

Madurai: Averring that DMK president M. K. Stalin of late has become 'very confused' Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam who sought to turn the tables against the DMK leader, wanted to know from Stalin if he was superstitious enough to believe that one would rise to higher position if a yagam is performed.

“No yagam was conducted in my office. I had only prayed to god as I would normally do.....Stalin thinks he could gain political mileage at every opportunity,” Mr. Panneerselvam said on Monday.

Refuting the DMK president's claim that he performed a yagam at his office in the State Secretariat aiming for the “Chief Minister's post,” Mr. Panneerselvam asked, “does Stalin believe that I can become CM by performing a yagam? Does he believe in superstition?...Stalin has been very confused of late.”     

If one can become Chief Minister by performing yagam, then all MLAs will perform it. Such yagam could be performed to become the Prime Minister. Hence, Stalin need not find a new meaning to such superstitious practices, he added.

On Sunday, Mr. Stalin averred that the Deputy CM had conducted a yagam at his office in the Secretariat here and maintained that Fort St George housing the Secretariat complex was common to people of all faiths.

On whether the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) being attempted by the Opposition parties would impact the AIADMK in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Panneerselvam replied that irrespective of any alliance, his party would repeat its 2014 performance of winning 37 out of 39 Lok Sabha seats. The AIADMK government led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was continuing to implement welfare schemes launched by the late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and was confident of getting full support of the people, he said.

Taking a dig at Stalin's political stand, he said the DMK leader proposed Congress president Rahul Gandhi's name as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the LS polls at a function here last month but while addressing the Kolkata rally on Jan.19, he became “confused” “He brought Rahul to a function in Chennai and proposed his name for the PM candidate...he also attended the Opposition rally in Kolkata...This shows that he is confused about what he stands for and which side to choose (Mamata Banerjeee or Rahul),” the AIADMK leader alleged.