‘Will bring right to service, put onus on MLAs’

Presenting himself in the DMK war room at his Cenotaph Road residence early on Thursday morning after addressing eight campaign meetings the previous day, Stalin looks sleep-deprived. But sitting for an hour-long interview with TOI, the prince-in-waiting is suddenly energetic, his answers quick, and his tone confident. “Freebies don’t work anymore,” he says, “development and job creation do.” Excerpts:

You are slogging it out. How is the public response?
People are keenly watching whatever is happening in the state. They are aware of the highlights of our manifesto like imposition of prohibition, waiver of farm and education loans, billing power consumers on monthly basis (instead of the present bimonthly system) and setting up of Lokayukta. By shifting to a monthly billing system, people will save `200 to `2,000 per month on power bills, depending on which slab they are in. AIADMK is studying our manifesto to adopt things from it. We have information that they may promise 200 units of free power.

Do waivers and freebies get votes? What about development and jobs?

People do not want freebies. About 40% of voters are youngsters. They want development and more employment opportunity. They are fed up with rampant corruption and flight of investment from the state. About 84 lakh people registered at employment exchanges are yet to get jobs. This backlog needs to be reduced gradually. We will introduce singlewindow system to clear new projects, and approvals will be given in 100 days. We plan to encourage a certain percentage of reservation for Tamils in new industries.

Reservation for Tamils? There are a million migrant labourers in TN…

We are reserving only a percentage for Tamils. (The DMK manifesto says, “If medium and large scale industries recruit at least 75% of employees who are born in Tamil Nadu a certain percentage of wages for the first 240 days will be borne by the state.”)

You were mentioning rampant corruption. How do you plan to fight it?

We will introduce right to services and fix deadlines for rendering government services like birth certificates and death certificates to people. We will clean up the system, starting from the bottom. We also need to create awareness among people not to pay bribes. When I was local administration minister, there was no corruption in the implementation of the employment guarantee scheme. I could ensure a clean administration because I appointed clean and efficient officials in my department and did periodic reviews. But in the last five years of AIADMK rule, the state has been pushed back by 50 years. We need to work 24x7 to bring it back on the rails. We will do it.

What about the corruption charges that your own party faces?

The 2G case started with a big figure and it has progressively come down… it shows the merit of the case. The charges against DMK leaders have not been proven yet. But Jayalalithaa was convicted in the disproportionate assets case though she subsequently got acquittal.

If you come to power, will all your ministers be people with a clean image?

Candidates have been selected with a lot of care. Kalaignar has been chief minister for five terms. He will select only the right people.

Many DMK candidates have been facing opposition within the party…
Not many. Only in case of a few candidates there were requests for change. And we changed to increase winnability. But the revolt in AIADMK is more serious. They have changed a large number of candidates and are still changing with just days to go for scrutiny of nominations.

What went wrong during talks with Vijayakanth? Was it a blunder not to get DMDK on board?

We never had any talks with DMDK. Kalaignar invited Vijayakanth to join our front as he had vowed to defeat AIADMK, but he did not respond positively. DMDK leaders created an impression that they were talking to us only to increase their bargaining power with other parties.

Will DMK suffer because of a split in anti-AIADMK votes?

People know that the People’s Welfare Front is a B team of AIADMK. It will harm only the AIADMK.

How many seats will your party win?

All 234 seats. Even chief minister J Jayalalithaa will find it difficult to win in R K Nagar. Apart from large-scale corruption in administration, people have pent up anger against the ruling party. Ministers and ruling party MLAs are not able to visit many villages. People are chasing them away. Industrialists keep telling me that they are not able to meet the chief minister or her cabinet colleagues. Industry leaders have been waiting for more than four years for an appointment with her. When DMK was in power, anybody could meet the chief minister or me (deputy chief minister).

You have promised prohibition in the state. How will you make up for the `33,000 crore revenue loss?

Our election manifesto has announced a lot of initiatives like generating revenue from natural resources to compensate for the revenue loss from prohibition. We do not foresee any major problem.

You have been saying people should not go to their elected representatives; instead the MLAs should go to the people to solve their problems. Will you enforce this if you come to power?

Our manifesto says MLAs should conduct grievance redressal meetings in their constituencies once a month. They should always be with the people to know their problems. In future, the party will take action against MLAs who ignore their constituencies. As Kolathur MLA, despite being in the opposition and many officials not cooperating, I could do a lot. Every week I used to go to the constituency and meet people.

Is this election a referendum on your leadership?

That is a perception media has created after I carried out the mass interactive campaign called ‘Namakku Naamae’ across the state. There are many who said DMK is finished when we faced a complete rout in the last Lok Sabha polls. But I went to every nook and corner of the state and rebuilt the party. It is showing results now. I have never said anywhere that I am the CM candidate. There is no leadership issue.

Will TN see you as CM before 2021?

I worked for the party not to become the chief minister. I am just doing service.

Don’t you think the youth want a young leader as their CM?

Kalaignar is our leader and he will be the chief minister. Even at the age of 93, he is working hard for the success of the party. In fact, he works more than we people do. He is not heli-hopping; he is travelling across the state in a van.

Analysts call your latest avatar a new-generation Stalin. What is the background of this transformation? Is there a change in your campaign style?

People think I have changed. This perception is because of the change in cost u m e. O n e needs to adapt to the changing times, without compro- mising on principles and party policies. As the reach of social media platforms is growing, we have been changing our campaign style.

Your greetings on Vinayagar Chaturthi, your visit to Ramanujar temple and your wife’s frequent visits to temples have often made news. Are you a believer, an atheist or an agnostic?

I don’t believe in God, but I do not criticise believers either. My wife comes with me wherever I go and visits all temples there. There is a puja room in our home. I have no problem with that. My motto is mankind is one, and God is one. I visited Ramanujar temple because Kalaignar (his father M Karunanidhi) wrote a script for a TV serial on Ramanujar. During my Namakku Namae campaign a few months ago, I went to Tiruvannamalai and Rameswaram temples also as the priests there wanted to give me a reception. I also received petitions from them.