NEW DELHI, June 12: Why the union home minister Amit Shah want to replace Narendra Modi with someone from Tamil Nadu as the prime minister? Why is he angry at Modi?” asked the Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin taking a swipe at Amit Shah.
He was commenting on Amit Shah’s reported advice to the BJP workers from Tamil Nadu to work in such a way that a “person from Tamil Nadu become prime minister.” “I welcome his suggestion, but I don’t know what his anger is with Modi,” Mr Stalin quipped in response to the comments in Salem on Monday.
Amit Shah had on Sunday reportedly urged his party workers in Tamil Nadu to work hard in order to ensure that someone from Tamil Nadu becomes prime minister in the future. Seizing on that remark, Stalin responded: “If the BJP has the idea that a Tamilian should be the Prime Minister, there are Tamilisai Soundararajan (Telangana Governor) and L Murugan (Union Minister). I think they may get a chance to become Prime Minister candidates,” he commented.
According to some senior BJP leaders, Amit Shah also claimed that the DMK had prevented two senior state leaders from becoming prime ministers in the past. During a closed-door meeting with party workers, Shah reportedly alleged that K Kamaraj and GK Moopanar had been prevented by the DMK from becoming prime minister.
Refuting the claim, Stalin challenged Mr Shah to make his statement public, so that the DMK could give a detailed explanation. The DMK also questioned Shah’s assertions about the Centre’s initiatives for Tamil Nadu and said the allocation of funds, as stated by him, was part of the government’s “constitutional duty.” DMK Parliamentary Party leader TR Baalu claimed Shah could not point out any “special schemes” as sought by Stalin.
(Manas Dasgupta)
