Tamil Nadu CM Stalin Rallies for Social Justice in Vikravandi By-Election

Describing the DMK as the champion of social justice, Stalin, in a video message to the Vikravandi voters, said his government had done something for every family in the State through the spate of welfare measures launched in the past three years and that it was the DMK that brought in 20 per cent reservation for MBCs and increased the quota for SCs.

So he urged the people to defeat the BJP alliance without mentioning the name of PMK that had fielded its candidate C Anbumani against the DMK’s Anniyur Siva with the AIADMK boycotting the polls. BJP State president K Annamalai also descended at Vikravandi on Friday to canvass votes for the PMK turning the heat on the campaign with just four days left for the polling on July 10.

It was then that Stalin’s video were released, provoking Anbumani to claim that it was the DMK that was betraying the interest of social justice by refusing to conduct the caste survey even after the courts had ruled that governments were empowered to do it and even at the risk of the State losing the 69 per cent reservation.

He also raised a few other questions against the DMK like the denial of exclusive reservation for the Vanniyar community and accused the party of working against social justice, urging the voters to teach a lesson to them in the Vikravandi by-election.

Stalin had mentioned that the memorial for the martyrs of the 1987 social justice protest who died in police firing – when the Vanniyar Sangam organized a prolonged agitation – and another memorial for DMK’s Govindasamy would soon be inaugurated. He also recalled former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi starting a separate department for BCs.

Otherwise, he listed the various welfare programmes of his government and said that the former DMK MLA, N Puzhalendi, whose passing necessitated the by-election, and Minister K Ponmudi had implemented various schemes for the Vikravandi constituency and also Villupuram district.

For those welfare projects to continue, he urged the people to vote for Anniyur Siva, who is the son of the soil and a long time worker of the DMK whom he had been watching since 1986.

Asked about leaders of the opposition parties, both the BJP led alliance and the Naam Tamilar Katchi, urging the AIADMK supporters to vote for their candidates, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said that it was up to them.

Speaking to media at Coimbatore, Palaniswami hit out at Annamalai and said that he was criticizing the AIADMK even after the party had announced that it was boycotting the Vikravandi by-election. He was unfairly saying that the AIADMK would have finished third or fourth if it had contested when it had come second in the 2021 election in the constituency with a margin of less than 6000 votes.

Explaining the reason for boycotting the by-election, he said that the DMK that had illegally held people of the Erode East constituency like cattle in halls and other places through the day during the by-election there and also paid them money was only expected to repeat the same thing in Vikravandi, too, Palaniswami said.

As a grand finale for the DMK’s intense campaign, State Minister for Youth Affairs Udhayanidhi Stalin would address a slew of meetings on July 7 and 8, the last two days of campaign, starting from 8 am ar various places.

Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer announced that polling would be held between 7 am and 6 pm on Wednesday and the campaign would come to a halt at 6 pm on Monday. People from outside the constituency had been asked to vacate by then and even start campaigners were not allowed to be there after 6 pm on Monday.

A holiday has been declared for all government offices, educational institutions and government related organisations on the day of polling.