Opposition leaders flay govt for bomb blast'

Chennai: Leaders of the opposition parties in the State blamed the government for the deterioration of law and order that led to the hurling of a ‘Molotov cocktail’ outside the gates of the Raj Bhavan and even as concerns were expressed over the incident happening on the eve of President Draupadi Murmu’s visit to Chennai.

AIADMK general secretary and leader of the opposition in the State Assembly, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, in a statement, expressed shock over the incident and said that it affected the dignity of the State that was once known as a garden of peace.

The failure of the government to provide the basic security when the President was to arrive in the State reflected badly on the intelligence agencies and the police, he said, wondering if Tamil Nadu had joined the list of lawless states in the country.

Reacting to the news that the person arrested in connection with the hurling of the petrol bomb was released from jail just a couple of days back, he said that it gave rise to the suspicion that the conspiracy to attack Raj Bhavan was hatched in prison.

BJP State president K Annamalai, in a tweet, said the same person had attacked the BJP headquarters in Chennai in February, 2022, and added that ‘these continuous attack only leaves one to think that the DMK government is sponsoring these attacks.’

He said criminals had taken the streets while the DMK government was busy diverting the attention of people to insignificant matters and added: ‘Stalin will now be preparing for the next diversion, as he always does.’