Union Budget 2025 | DMK to protest on Feb 8 against Tamil Nadu's interests being ignored

The DMK on Monday alleged that the Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was "partial" and biased against Tamil Nadu, and did not allot funds for the Samagra Shiksha (SS) Abhiyan.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will organise “condemnation public meetings” in all districts on February 8 to protest against the manner in which the state was ignored in the Union Budget 2025-26.

The party headquarters announced in a statement that meetings will be held in all organisational districts of the DMK across Tamil Nadu.

The DMK on Monday alleged that the Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was “partial” towards Tamil Nadu and didn’t allot funds for Samagra Shiksha (SS) Abhiyan and for funding disaster management despite repeated demands from Chief Minister M K Stalin.

“…the name of the state, Tamil Nadu, wasn’t mentioned even once in the speech. The DMK will organise public meetings on Saturday evening to protest against the injustice meted out to Tamil Nadu,” the statement added.

Sources told DH that senior ministers, MPs, and state-level office bearers will be deputed to attend the meetings in various districts and explain to the people how the BJP government at the Centre has been “ignoring” Tamil Nadu’s demands for the past four years.

Meanwhile, the DMK student’s wing will hold a demonstration in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on February 4 against the draft UGC rules that give broader powers to Governors (chancellors) in the appointment of Vice-chancellors for state-run universities.

The announcement of a protest against Budget by the DMK comes two days after Stalin complained that Tamil Nadu has been “completely ignored” yet again with none of the demands made by the state being met.

In a hard-hitting statement, Stalin had wanted to know why the Union Government didn’t allot funds for infrastructure projects like building metro networks in Madurai, and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, but had rained schemes and projects on states where the BJP is in alliance with the ruling party and where elections are scheduled.

Stalin had also suggested that he was unable to understand the Centre ignoring Tamil Nadu despite the “splendid work” of the state in several sectors being mentioned prominently in the Economic Survey, and reports released by NITI Ayog. Institutes from TN top the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Stalin added.