Tamil Nadu poll a war against AIADMK, DMK says Vijayakant

GUMMIDIPOONDI (TN): DMDK chief Vijayakant today began his election campaign from here launching a tirade against both the AIADMK and DMK describing the May 16 election as a "war against the Dravidian majors".

Hitting out at AIADMK and DMK as "venomous plants", he appealed to the people to shun them and said, "From yesterday (when a joint rally of DMDK-PWF was held at Kanchipuram district) our war has begun, this is a war (against AIADMK and DMK), only you (people) should give the judgement."

Stating that both the Dravidian parties "misruled" Tamil Nadu alternately for nearly 50 years, Vijayakant hit out at them over issues like prohibition.

He questioned as to why AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa has assured that "dry law would be implemented in phases and not at one go" and made several allegations.

Also, he asked why DMK chief Karunanidhi now promised to bring in prohibition when he had been in power five times before.

On the goal of DMDK-PWF combine, he said six parties (DMDK, MDMK, TMC, CPI(M), CPI, VCK) came together for a "single cause", to be the credible alternative after the 50 year misrule of AIADMK and DMK.

Referring to alleged granite scam in Madurai and suspension of Judicial Magistrate K V Mahendra Boopathy who went into related cases, he asked why action was not taken against those behind the scam.

He also alleged that large scale "irregularities" were happening in sand mining in the district (Tiruvallur).

In his closing remarks, he said "no one can change your fate, if you do not vote for the DMDK-PWF combine".

Vijayakant today used a van gifted to him decades ago by AIADMK founder MGR for campaign purposes, according to the party.