Will win all 22 seats, form government with 119 MLAs, says MK Stalin

Elated at the announcement of

byelections

to the four remaining assembly segments on May 19, DMK president M K Stalin has expressed confidence that they will sweep the 22 seats to which byelections are to be held and form the government with a total of 119 MLAs in their alliance. He was addressing a public meeting in support of his sister and Tuticorin candidate Kanimozhi, and for the Vilathikulam byelection candidate on Wednesday.


Stating that the DMK had 88 MLAs and their alliance parties nine more, taking their strength to 97, Stalin said that winning the 22 seats would give them an edge over the minimum number of 117 MLAs required to form the government. He said the soon-to-be-formed DMK government would pass a special act banning Sterlite permanently. “Action will be taken against the police personnel who killed 13 protesters during the 100th day anti-Sterlite protest,” he said.


Stalin read out the names of the 13 victims and the place they hailed from and asked the people to teach the AIADMK government and BJP government at the Centre a lesson for “ordering the killings”. Referring to Kanimozhi as ‘parliament tiger’, he said she had successfully raised various issues from the time she was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2007. “She has raised her voice for social issues, against Sterlite and for exemption from NEET to name a few,” he said.

Taking a dig at Kanimozhi’s rival and BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan, he wondered whether it wasn’t a BJP plot to humiliate her by making her lose her deposit. “Didn’t you get any other place to contest? You are trapped in a place embroiled with problems such as Sterlite, environmental and fishermen issues, matchbox industry woes,” he said adding that she had popularised the phrase ‘Fascist Modi Down’. He was referring to the argument she had with a female student when the latter uttered those words on a flight with the BJP leader from Chennai to Tuticorin.

Stalin also listed the various assurances his party had for the people of the constituency.