PM Narendra Modi targets Congress-DMK on scams

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his concluding election rally in Tamil Nadu with a call to the people to "free the state from the clutches" of the main Dravidian parties and "change the destiny of the state by voting for development".

He took on the erstwhile UPA partners DMK and Congress on the 2G spectrum and 3 G roaming scams saying the accused in the scandals were running scot free in the state. However, he refrained from any direct criticism of the ruling AIADMK that had marked his previous election rally in Nagercoil in southern Tamil Nadu.

The first PM to visit Vedaranyam in free India, Modi drew a parallel between the Salt Satyagraha led by Mahatma Gandhi from Dandi in Gujarat in 1930 and the protest against the salt tax spearheaded by Dr Rajagopalachari the same year in Vedaranyam. Modi was there to campaign for the party candidate S K Vedharathinam and eight other candidates from Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts.

Alluding to the cycloneprone Nagapattinam district, he said the Centre had amended laws to ensure that famers got full compensation for the loss of crops. "It is my dream project to improve the livelihood of the people by increasing their income two times higher than their present earnings by 2022 when the country celebrates 75 years of its independence," he said.

Dwelling on the miseries of the fishermen in his 41-minute speech in Thethakudi, he said the Centre will assist farmers to form collectives to venture into deep sea fishing to improve their livelihood.

`AIADMK didn't allow us to take chopper'

BJP charged the AIADMK government with obstructing Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan and the party's national general secretary Murlidhar Rao from flying to Vedaranyam to participate in PM Modi's rally despite clearance by the Special Security Group. The ministers had to ultimately travel by road to Vedaranyam from Trichy.