Tamil Nadu: AIADMK aiming to win all 39 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, says EPS

Amid strains between allies BJP and AIADMK, the leader of opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) on Sunday said every party has its own ideology and each of us will represent our party’s stance until there is common understanding during elections. While reacting on Union home minister Amit Shah’s target for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to win more than 25 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he said AIADMK is looking forward to win on all 39 parliamentary seats.

“Every party has its own ideology and each of us will represent our party’s stance until there is common understanding during elections,” EPS said. “It is not like the alliance of the DMK where they are sticking together all the time with no mind of their own… we are not subservient to anyone. It’s the DMK who keeps saying they are not afraid of ED because they faced MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) who is subservient to Congress. Because Congress brought MISA during Emergency and DMK is still in alliance with them.”

EPS also reacted to chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin’s criticism that the AIADMK is being subservient to the BJP, afraid of raids from federal agencies after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested minister V Senthil Balaji on June 14. EPS criticised the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance’s protest in Coimbatore on June 17 against the ED’s action. “When Stalin was in the opposition spoke against Senthil Balaji first on the scam because he was in the AIADMK then,” EPS said.

ED has had eight days custody of Balaji since Friday but officials are allowed to interrogate him only inside the premises of the Kauvery hospital in Chennai where he is due for a heart bypass surgery. After 18 hours of questioning, the ED arrested Balaji under the prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) on June 14 at 1:39 am. The minister is accused of taking bribes from candidates in exchange for jobs in the state government when he was transport minister under the AIADMK government from 2011-2015 and the candidates neither got jobs nor their money.

Stalin had earlier wondered why the ED had not been interested in cases against former AIADMK ministers registered by the state’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). “But Union home minister Amit Shah will meet these corrupt characters in Delhi,” said Stalin. “The AIADMK was governing till 2021. Why didn’t they take action against Balaji then?”