Overwhelming support to DMK is evident: Stalin
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Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin called upon the DMK cadre, workers and functionaries to stand by the people who were giving them the hope of the party’s victory in the 2026 Assembly elections by ensuring its return to power for the seventh term, which was explicitly evident during his recent visit to Villupuram district that saw young men and women lining up the roads to welcome him and also interact with him by calling his ‘appa, appa’ (daddy, daddy).
The overwhelming support of people to his government was on display at all the districts that he had visited and it was the continuation of the exercise to interact with people, he would be going to Tirunelveli district on February 6 and 7, he said in his epistle to party cadre on Wednesday, recalling the successful trip to Villupuram district where he inaugurated a memorial for former Minister A Govindasamy who contested in the ‘Rising Sun’ symbol for the first time.
The memorial for Govindasamy, known as AG, stood tall along with his statue to intellectually challenge and silence those who spoke disparagingly of the Dravidian Movement and its iconic stalwarts since AG was a leader who enjoyed the trust and goodwill of those like Periyar E V Ramasamy, C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi. The memorial would proclaim his greatness to the younger generation, he said.
Along with the memorial for AG, Stalin also declared open another memorial for the 21 social justice warriors, whom he described as those killed during the AIADMK rule. By reminding about those ‘martyrs’ who laid down their lives fighting for 20 per cent exclusive reservation for the Vanniyar community during the 1987 agitation by the Vanniyar Sangam that was spearheaded by S Ramadoss who later on launched the Pattali Makkal Katchi, Stalin aspires to tell the community that the DMK always stood with them.
The letter mainly highlighted that the DMK was the champion of social justice and it was because of Karunanidhi the State now follows the 69 per cent reservation for marginalized communities, particularly the 20 per cent exclusive quota for Most Backward Classes. By stressing that their agitation in 1987 was violently quelled by the AIADMK government and it was only after the DMK came to power the Vanniyar community’s demands were heeded to, Stalin was only trying to capture the imagination of the Vanniyar youth.
Social Justice principles were always the tap root of the Dravidian Movement, he said, tracing the100 year-old history of the movement through the Dravidian Association, Justice Party, Self Respect Movement and the Dravidar Kazhagam.
The letter to the cadre was primarily aimed at motivating them as it entrusted the job of ensuring the return of the DMK in 2026 with the cadre, workers and office-bearers to live up to what he described as the expectations of the people