Chennai: The NDA had a definite Prime Ministerial candidate and people knew that Narendra Modi would come to power if they voted for the BJP-led alliance while no one knew who would come in as Prime Minister if they voted for the rival INDIA coalition, Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Sunday.
Campaigning for BJP’s North Chennai candidate R C Paul Kanagaraj in various places like Otteri and Pulianthope by driving through the streets in an open jeep, Irani urged the people to vote for the BJP as it led a better alliance than the INDIA coalition.
Urging the people of Chennai to vote for the welfare of their own families and not for that of the family that had been ruling the State, Irani, speaking in Hindi and English at the five or six points where her jeep stopped under the blazing morning sun, said the Union Government had allocated Rs 1.46 lakh crore to the State in the last 10 years.
BJP State Vice President V P Duraisamy, who is regularly going around the streets of North Chennai seeking people’s support for his party, sought to answer the questions raised by Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin on the claims of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with regard to the allocation of funds for flood relief.
Duraisamy said that when funds were given to a State by the Union Government, a utility certificate had to be given on the expenditure of the money and the Union Minister had only stressed on that. But Stalin had gone overboard by crying foul and accusing Sitharaman of behaving like a usurious money lender.
Since the Union Government had made available funds to the tune of over Rs 4000 for building infrastructure to prevent funds and then another Rs 950 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) already, Sitaraman had wanted to know how the money was spent by the State Government, Duraisamy clarified.
Though the Chief Minister had earlier sought Rs 37,000 crore as relief from the Union Government for flood mitigation, in the petition filed in the Supreme Court he had only asked for Rs 2000 crore, he said and wanted to know the reason for the anomaly.
Switching over to Telugu in localities inhabited by Telugu speaking population, Duraisamy endears himself to the people by striking a personal chord with them, telling them that the BJP had grown well in the State and might capture up to 22 seats in the Lok Sabha elections
In the South Chennai constituency, the rival DMK and BJP candidates sought people’s support by invoking the touchy topic of NEET. BJP’s Tamilisai Soundararajan said that the DMK and the Congress were cheating the people on the issue concerning the medical entrance examination as it was introduced during their rule in Delhi.
She pointed out that it was Congress top leader P Chidambaram’s wife who fought for the implementation of NEET in the Supreme Court and also declared after winning the case that NEET would be there forever. Now, the Congress and DMK were talking about giving exemptions on NEET, which was nothing but doublespeak, she said.
DMK candidate, Tamilachi Thangapandian, campaigning in Saidapet area, said the State would get exemption from NEET once the INDIA coalition won the Lok Sabha elections and formed a government. She accused the BJP of forcefully implementing it and pointed out that they could not bring it when J Jayalalithaa was in power.
Jayalalithaa’s name was also invoked by DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth, while canvassing for her party’s Central Chennai candidate Parthasaratahy. She said an alliance between the AIADMK and DMDK was always a good augury and the tie-up would continue. It was first forged by Jayalalithaa and Vijayakanth, she recalled.
