Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday categorically asserted that the AIADMK would lead an alliance in the State, whenever the next Assembly election was conducted.
“Right from the days of former Chief Ministers late M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK has always led the alliances in the State, be it in the Assembly or Lok Sabha elections. The party will continue to do so,” he said in response to a query from a journalist.
The Chief Minister on Friday wound up a two-day tour of the delta districts to review steps taken to check the spread of COVID-19 and the progress of development works.
Mr. Palaniswami’s statement comes in the wake of BJP State vice-president V.P. Duraisamy’s recent comment that the national party would lead an alliance in the State in the 2021 Assembly elections.
Earlier, in Tiruvarur, Mr. Palaniswami had parried a question on the issue, saying that alliances would be decided at the time of the elections and that he felt it was a needless discussion at this stage, only to come up with a more direct affirmation later in the day. He said that the State government had reached out to his counterparts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and preliminary discussions were on among the States about the Cauvery-Godavari link project.
“We are making strenuous efforts to implement the project and have sought the cooperation of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments. I had written to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and had also spoken to him. Two Ministers were also deputed to the States for talks. The Chief Ministers of the southern States have agreed to strive together to implement the project. We have begun preliminary talks,” he said.
Irrigation in the delta
When his attention was drawn to the fact that the current storage at the Stanley reservoir in Mettur would be sufficient only for two months’ irrigation in the delta, Mr. Palaniswami said his government was taking all necessary steps to get Tamil Nadu’s due share of Cauvery water from Karnataka. “We are taking up the issue at the Cauvery Water Management Authority meetings. We are conveying our requirements and getting our due share of water as per the Supreme Court verdict,” he said. He replied in the negative when asked whether the State cess on petrol and diesel would be cut.
