Chennai: President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in wishing a long and healthy life to Chief Minister M K Stalin, who turned 71 on Friday with party workers celebrating the birthday all over the State and senior DMK leaders taking part in the cake cutting event at Anna Arivalayalm, the party headquarters in Chennai.
Leaders of all the alliance parties greeted him personally at Anna Arivalayam and party workers thronged in large numbers to wish him. Ahead of that, the Chief Minister paid floral tributes to stalwarts of the Dravidian movement by visiting the memorials of M Karunanidhi, C N Annadurai and Periyar E V Ramasamy.
He sought the blessings of his mother Dayaluammal at their Gopalapuram residence and also called on Rajathi Ammal and Kanimozhi at their house in CIT Colony after a cake cutting ceremony organized by his family members, comprising wife Durga, children and grandchildren at his house in Alwarpet.
Greetings poured in from various people, including political leaders cutting across party lines and Murmu’s message on X said, ‘May God bless you with good health and happiness and many more years of continued and dedicated service to the nation, while Modi said: ‘May he lead a long and healthy life.’
Kerala Chief Minister PInayari Vijayan, greeting ‘dear Comrade M K Stalin,’ said ‘your firm resolve in defending democratic and secular values enshrined in the Constitution is highly inspiring’ and Stalin quickly replied to him with a message, ‘let’s join hands in the noble pursuit of uplifting the marginalized and the proletarians, drawing inspiration from the profound principles of Dravidianism and Communism.
Governor R N Ravi sent in a personal greeting to the Chief Minister through his secretary, while leaders of the INDIA coalition from all over the country conveyed their warm wishes through social media. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed him as ‘dear brother’ and wished him ‘the very best in the times to come as we fight to protect the pluralistic and federal idea of India.’
Stalin thanked those who greeted him through the day and carried pictures of the meetings with political leaders of friendly parties and his cadre in his X page. In his reply to Rahul Gandhi he said ‘let’s work together to uphold the values of federalism and continue to strive for a better, inclusive and pluralistic India.
Among the other national leaders who greeted Stalin through X were Sharad Pawar, Om Birla, Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, Mallikarjun Kharge and Nitin Gadkari. BJP State President K Annamalai wished a long life to Stalin to continue the public service.
However, the ‘BJP Tamil Nadu’ put out a message in Mandarin, describing it as Stalin’s ‘favourite language,’ taking a swipe at the newspaper advertisement put out by a state minister with a visual of a rocket having a Chinese flag painted on it.
The advertisement in the newspaper was issued by Fisheries Minister Anita Radharkrishnan to mark the foundation stone laying for the spaceport at Kulasekarapattinam by Modi and Thoothukudi Member of Parliament Kanimozhi has already described it as a faus pax committed by the graphic designer.
