Chennai: Two days before the state-wide padyatra by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K. Annamalai begins, the party Wednesday submitted a “memorandum” and documents on alleged corruption by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leaders to Governor R.N. Ravi.
The party said this was part 2 of its “DMK Files expose”. The first was released in April.
Meanwhile, speaking in Trichy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M.K. Stalin urged his party workers to work towards defeating the BJP. “If the party is allowed to continue in power, it will destroy the country and Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Stalin and other members of the DMK first family were among 13 party leaders named in the first part of the expose. Defamation cases were subsequently filed by several DMK members, including Stalin’s son and state minister Udhayanidhi, party organisational secretary R.S. Bharati, and MP T.R. Baalu.
‘More details during padyatra’
To present ‘DMK Files 2’ to the governor, senior BJP leaders — along with Annamalai — reached the Raj Bhavan around 3pm. Their memorandum was accompanied by a large metal box, with the party alleging it contained details of “three scams” to the tune of Rs 5,600 crore.
Today, along with the Senior leaders of @BJP4TamilNadu, we had the opportunity to meet our Hon Governor of TN, Thiru RN Ravi avl.
We presented a memorandum seeking his excellency’s intervention & suitable action concerning Part 2 of DMK files with documents on Benami connected… pic.twitter.com/QJv7DHdkk3
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) July 26, 2023
In another tweet, he said the party would elaborate more on the scams during the padyatra, which will kickstart Friday.
Senior BJP leaders had earlier told ThePrint that the march had two objectives — to speak about the success of the Modi government, and to “expose the evil DMK government”.
Speaking to the media outside the Raj Bhavan, BJP state vice-president Karu Nagaraj said the metal box contained “information about the benami assets of close to nine DMK ministers”.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Annamalai will talk about ‘DMK Files 2’ during the padyatra, he added.
‘Governor partisan to BJP’
CM Stalin addressed party workers in Trichy Wednesday and sought to emphasise the importance of next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
“The upcoming Lok Sabha polls are very important. More than who should come to power, we should be sure about who should not come to power,” he said.
“Our alliance should not only win all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, but should win across the country.”
Stalin said if the BJP government continued to stay in power, then “no one can save the country and there won’t be any democracy”.
Stalin also took a potshot at Governor Ravi, saying he was indirectly “campaigning for the DMK” by allegedly being partisan to the BJP. The DMK, he said, won’t even ask for his removal till the Lok Sabha election. “Let him continue as it will bring more votes for the party,” said Stalin.
He also took a dig at the BJP governments in Manipur and at the Centre, saying the country “has not forgotten what happened in Gujarat in 2002, and a similar situation is panning out in Manipur”.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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