Tamil Nadu: I called the CM for debate, not his deputy: EPS

Addressing media persons at the Coimbatore airport on Wednesday, Palaniswami said he did not know if the Chief Minister lacked the confidence to take up his challenge or if he was a puppet Chief Minister, reiterating his earlier allegation that the State had four power centres.

Referring to the Chief Minister’s claim that Palaniswami was belittling him, he said that as the Leader of the Opposition he never denigrated him. Even when he was the Chief Minister he had never hit below the belt, Palaniswami said.

However, when the Chief Minister made derogatory remarks against him like saying that he got the post by crawling or flying in the air, he had no option other than paying back in the same coin.

On forging an alliance for the 2026 Assembly elections, he said that he had already ruled out joining hands with the BJP and that he was firm on that stand.

The war of words between the DMK and AIADMK broke out when Palaniswami launched a broadside against the DMK government accusing it of letting down the State government employees and not addressing their long pending grievance.

Since he made some serious allegations and said the Chief Minister had earned the wrath of the government employees, who had vowed to make him the Leader of the Opposition after the 2026 Assembly elections, the State government came out with a detailed explanation on the issue, listing out what had been done for the welfare of government employees.

The official press release issued late on Monday night recalled the invoking of draconian legislations like ESMA and TESMA leading to the instant dismissal of lakhs and lakhs of government employees who struck work during the regime of J Jayalalithaa and also mentioned many other charges against the earlier AIADMK governments with regard to mishandling of government staff.

Responding to those charges, Palaniswami, through a statement on Tuesday, described the official press release as an ‘annonymous’ letter since it was not issued in the name of anyone. Refuting the charges of Palaniswami quickly, Thennaru recalled several instances in the various AIADMK regimes when statements were issued anonymously.

Thennarasu also accused Palaniswami of hoodwinking everyone by claiming that during the AIADMK rule people were free to go on strike and referred to the crackdown on protesting government staff in 2017, 2017 and 2019, adding that the AIADMK leader was shedding crocodile tears for government employees now after oppressing them when he as in power.