Tamil Nadu Opposition leader and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin on Saturday, May 23 lashed out at the Congress party for its alleged opportunist politics of supporting the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to form the government without even consulting the DMK, which was leading the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) of which Congress was a member.
The former Deputy CM made these remarks while speaking at the DMK youth wing meeting held in Chennai. He said that the Congress party lacked “minimum decency and gratitude” and told cadres that it should not be trusted or included in any future alliance.
“I used to think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were the reasons for the BJP’s continuous victories. But now I realise that the main reason for that is the Congress party,” he said mocking the electoral failures of the Congress.
“Our leader [Stalin] had carried the Congress party on its shoulders in the previous Parliamentary and Assembly elections. To save secularism and prevent BJP from entering Tamil Nadu, our cadres shed blood and tears to ensure the victory of Congress candidates. We did the same in this elections too. The Congress, which was missing in the field during the election campaign, won five seats because of DMK cadre. They won because of the votes polled in favour of electing the DMK president as Chief Minister. But they abandoned us without even telling us,” Udhayanidhi said.
The Congress, he said, had “lacked minimum decency and gratitude” and should not be trusted or included in any future alliance. “Whether we teach them a lesson or not, the people of Tamil Nadu will definitely do so soon.”
Following a hung Assembly result in the state election held last month, the Congress – which had won five seats – quickly snapped ties with the SPA and supported the TVK party to form the government in Tamil Nadu. The DMK party dubbed this action as a betrayal and called the Congress leaders “backstabbers.” While other members of the SPA like VCK and IUML also eventually joined the TVK government, they had consultations with the DMK party before taking the decision.
