Chennai: Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin cautioned AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami against criticizing others without some introspection about one’s own position and said that the entire State was watching him and the AIADMK MLAs frolicking at Koovathur after the passing away of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2016.
Returning from a whirlwind tour of several districts like Salem, Madurai and Dindigul on Monday, the Deputy Chief Minister told the media at the Chennai airport that the escapades of AIADMK MLAs was all out on television and that how Palaniswami managed to overtake the seniors in the party and reach the top spot was common knowledge.
Responding to the question on Palaniswami accusing him of being made the Deputy Chief Minister by overtaking a slew of senior leaders in the party, Udhayanidhi Stalin said even the AIADMK had many leaders were more experienced like Panruti S Ramachandran, Sengottaiyan, Chemmalai, Dindigul Srinivasan when Jayalalithaa passed away.
But Palaniswami pushed the other leaders behind and reached the top, about which the people were fully aware of as they were witness to the drama and other developments at the Koovathur resort when the MLAs were kept in captivity.
Accusing Palaniswami of having no inclination to take care of the welfare of the people, he pointed out that he travelled to Salem when heavy rains lashed Chennai and never bothered to come out to see the damage caused by the floods.
The top leaders of the AIADMK had divided the plum posts in the party like a group dividing a loot among themselves, he alleged.
Earlier at Salem, he addressed a youth wing conference on Sunday and urged them to make home visits with a view to attracting people in the age group of 16 to 35 years into the party. While it was up to the individuals to join the DMK’s youth wing or not, he called upon the cadre to meet them and invite them to join.
Setting a target of 200 seats (out of the 234) for the 2026 Assembly elections, he said the overwhelming victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls were due to the hard work of the Youth Wing and wanted the same efforts to be made once again.
Stressing on the need for the Youth Wing cadre to concentrate on social media to reach out to the people, he said that training programmes would be organized for them.
