Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin slams Amit Shah, says state will not bow before 'arrogance'

Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu: Lashing out at the BJP, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday said not only Union Minister Amit Shah, but even an entire battalion of the RSS people will not be able to electorally influence Tamil Nadu and that the DMK would emerge victorious by defeating the Saffron party.

Addressing the DMK's youth wing (north zone) functionaries meeting, Stalin recalled the hard work behind the growth and development of the party's young wing over the decades and the work of leaders including him.

Alleging that Right Wing outfits were working aggressively after the BJP assumed office at the Centre for the third time in 2024, he claimed that they were spreading lies and "defamatory and retrograde thoughts" and hence, in order to take on such a campaign the party has to vigorously take up campaign and disseminate its principles.

The CM said, "Not only the duty to guard Tamil Nadu and the Tamil language; we have the duty to protect the whole of India and its pluralism. In the whole of India, the DMK is the only state-level party that is ideologically fighting against the BJP. They (BJP) could not succeed only in our Tamil Nadu." Further, the DMK president said that only in view of such a scenario BJP leaders like Amit Shah were annoyed with the DMK.

Recently, CM said Amit Shah had asserted that Tamil Nadu was the BJP's next target following its victory in Bihar.

Stalin said, "Not only you (Amit Shah), even if you bring a whole Sanghi battalion (RSS people), you cannot do anything here (make an electoral impact and win). This is Tamil Nadu. You do not understand our character."

The Chief Minister said, "Tamil Nadu embraces only love and will not bow before arrogance and instead the state will oppose it," He asserted that the DMK will win (by defeating the BJP).

The DMK chief said the question before the people was whether they were going to leap forward by 50 years or if they were going to allow themselves to be influenced by those who were trying to take them backwards by many years.

"The people's answer to that question will be the Dravidian model government version 2.0," he asserted and appealed to the cadres to work hard towards that goal of a big win in 2026 Assembly election. "The future of Tamil Nadu lies in the future of the DMK," he said.

Tracing the history of young leaders building the DMK, Stalin said DMK founder CN Annadurai was just 40 when he founded the party in 1949.

At that time, several others who became top leaders later were very young; late party patriarch M Karunanidhi was only 25. They were full of energy like "fire" and the DMK became "firebrand," by its commitment to its ideology and by its effective campaigning.

Places where people congregate in large numbers like tea shops were used like political platforms to educate people and door-to-door campaign was among the campaign strategies followed, the DMK chief said outlining the work especially during the initial decades following the founding of the party.

Reminiscing the work of leaders including him to build the youth wing brick by brick which was founded on July 20, 1980 by Karunanidhi in Madurai, Stalin said that responsibility had been given to Udhayanidhi, who is the party youth wing secretary and Deputy chief minister.

The CM praised his son Udhayanidhi, saying he is pretty strong in his understanding of ideology and following it. This has prompted rivals to lament that the DMK youth wing chief was the "most dangerous." Udhayanidhi has realised his responsibility and he is functioning in an effective manner, the CM said.

"First, he enrolled lakhs of youths in the youth wing to strengthen it and in order to make them strong in their understanding of the party ideology, he held special meetings," the CM noted.

The DMK chief also outlined several other initiatives of Udhayanidhi, including nurturing "200 new orators in the first batch," holding of knowledge carnivals (Arivu Thiruvizha) and founding a publication house to release new books to make youths more well versed in ideology and articulate it well.

"This is the quality of a politician," he said, praising Udhayanidhi.

"What should you do? You must take our legacy to the people," Stalin said and wanted the youth wing functionaries to reach out to the people and apprise them about the government's solid work for the people's welfare and the state's growth.