DMK Leader MK Stalin Requests Rahul Gandhi To 'Unite Opposition' To Overthrow BJP Led Centre

While addressing a public meeting in Salem, Stalin alleged India was "suffocating due to the communal, fascist" forces and that Rahul Gandhi has a responsibility to protect the nation against it.

Image Source (PTI)

New Delhi: On Sunday, DMK leader M.K. Stalin requested Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to unite opposition, stitch an alliance against BJP-led central government. Stalin accused the Centre of unleashing a ''chemical'' and ''cultural'' attack against the state.

While addressing a public meeting in Salem, Stalin alleged India was "suffocating due to the communal, fascist" forces and that Rahul Gandhi had a responsibility to protect the nation against it.

Talking about the 2019 Parliamentary polls, Stalin said the BJP could not win even a single Lok Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu as secular parties led by the DMK came together. He added,  BJP got only a 37 per cent vote share in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, which meant that the remainder, 63 per cent of people opposed it, but they voted for different parties.

A PTI report cited Election Commission data stating seven national parties together secured 69 per cent votes in the 2019 LS polls which includes the BJP's 37.76 per cent, Congress party's 19.7 per cent, CPI's 0.59 per cent and CPI(M)'s 1.77 per cent.

Talking about the Hydrocarbon, Methane extraction projects along with Kudankulam nuclear power project, the Chennai-Salem Express Highway and the Neutrino Observatory projects Stalin stated that these initiatives were a ''chemical attack'' by the Centre on Tamil Nadu.

According to the PTI report, the DMK leader alleged ''cultural attack'' by ''imposition'' of Hindi and Sanskrit, the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test and filling vacancies in Tamil Nadu by recruiting people belonging to northern states. He further alleged that only DMK could stand up to such attacks and AIADMK has proved by its conduct over the past five years that it cannot take on the Centre. 

Bringing up AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa's death in 2016, the DMK chief also accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy. He even accused Centre of not taking any initiative to support the burial of late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi in the Marina beachfront in Chennai. According to the PTI report, he claimed that the Tamil Nadu government ''did not give permission,'' and that the Centre did not take any initiative and Modi too did not give a thought to it. Karunanidhi was buried in Marina after the matter went to the Madras High Court.