Taking a swipe at the DMK-Congress combine, the PM said those who were “sworn enemies” have joined hands, despite the national party having “humiliated” its southern ally in the past

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asserted that there was no consensus among the Congress’s allies to name the party’s president Rahul Gandhi as the coalition’s Prime Ministerial candidate.

Speaking at a campaign rally here in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam, the AIADMK-BJP-PMK coalition’s candidates from Theni, Madurai and Dindigul and other alliance leaders, he said only the DMK had wanted Mr. Gandhi to lead the nation. However, the other allies had either turned down the proposal, or had not taken it seriously. Every leader in the Congress alliance, he claimed, was waiting in line to become the next prime minister.

Describing the DMK-Congress alliance as ‘opportunistic’, Mr. Modi said, in 1979, the Congress had ill-treated the DMK after the Emergency. More recently, after the 2G spectrum scam expose, when DMK leaders were put behind bars, the DMK’s leaders had come down heavily on the Congress high command. Today, the party’s president seemed to have forgotten the past and had conveniently scripted a new story that Mr. Gandhi should become the PM.

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People should not forget that in Tamil Nadu and in many other States, the Congress had formed alliances, not to take the nation forward, but with a single point agenda to defeat Modi. He went on to reassure the people that he would always remain vigil (a chowkidar) and ensure that these (Congress-DMK) parties never came back to power.

In an apparent reference to former Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram, Mr. Modi said when the BJP took action as per the laws against his son Karti Chidambaram, they had objected loudly. “We have been transparent and never interfered in such investigations that went on to unravel huge resources being smuggled out of the country,” he charged.

MGR govt dismissed

Mr. Narendra Modi, after all these years, demanded an answer from the Congress for dismissing the democratically-elected MGR rule in Tamil Nadu. Also, he wanted an apology and response from the Congress for the attack on Sikhs in the horrible riots in 1984 after late Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

In his opening remarks, the PM wished people of the state a Happy Tamil New Year and also paid respects to late leaders MGR and Jayalalithaa, who have won from Theni district to the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Modi also made a pit stop in Ramanathapuram as part of his election campaign tour, on Saturday