AIADMK stages walkout during Tamil Nadu Budget session, demands DMK govt resignation
BJP legislators and primary opposition party AIADMK walked out of the Budget presentation amid an ED probe into state sponsored corporation TASMAC.
The AIADMK staged a walkout from the Tamil Nadu state assembly during finance minister Thangam Thennarasu's presentation of Budget 2025-26 on Friday. Bharatiya Janata Party legislators joined the AIADMK in protest.
AIADMK general secretary and leader of opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami said the party had left since Speaker M Appavu had denied permission to raise the issue of a probe launched by the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating the state-sponsored liquor seller TASMAC over money laundering.
The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation or TASMAC is a company owned by the government of Tamil Nadu.
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Addressing the media outside the state legislative assembly, he told ANI, “The ED has said there has been a TASMAC corruption of more than ₹1000 crores. The investigation is going on. It is possible that there has been over ₹40,000 crore of corruption in TASMAC.”
The leader claimed that no action had been taken even after the ED raid and demanded the DMK government's resignation.
ED conducts TASMAC raids
On Thursday, a day before the Budget presentation, the ED conducted searches across Tamil Nadu in relation to a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in TASMAC.
The probe agency is also investigating the purported role of minister Senthil Balaji, official sources told PTI.
The offices of TASMAC, its employees, corporate offices of distilleries and plants, and "key associates" linked to Balaji were all being investigated.
BJP leader Annamalai slammed the DMK government over the proof of the state-run liquor corporation, “The result of changing Tamil Nadu into a land of corruption and running government companies as centres of commission has today led to the level of ED searches in TASMAC.”
In a post on X he added, “The ED has uncovered documents from the distilleries linked to the generation of unaccounted cash of ₹1000 Crores, which were paid as kickbacks. DMK has been fleecing common people to fill their party's coffers by rigging the system, and TN CM MK Stalin is duty-bound to answer the people who received these kickbacks. He should also ask himself if he has the moral right to continue as the CM of TN.”
