DMK cannot be cowed down by raids and arrests, Udayanidhi Stalin to BJP

Chennai, June 19 (IANS) Arrests and raids can never cow down DMK whose leaders are not afraid of Prime Minister Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah, Tamil Nadu Minister for Sports Development and Youth Affairs Udayanidhi Stalin has said.

Udayanidhi -- who is the son of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin -- was addressing a gathering at Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu on Sunday.

The young leader said that the CBI, ED and Income Tax have become volunteer forces of the BJP, he said, adding that the BJP was trying to make a backdoor entry to Tamil Nadu as it cannot win elections in the state.

He asserted that the DMK will drive out the BJP and its "slaves" (AIADMK) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from the state.

The minister also charged the Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi of keeping 21 files pending without signing as most of them were against the corruption of the AIADMK ministers of the previous government.

Notably, the DMK is on a confrontational path with the central government led by BJP after the midnight arrest of Tamil Nadu minister, Senthil Balaji.

Chief Minister Stalin has himself come out strongly against the arrest and has even challenged the BJP that the DMK also knows politics and what to do. Stalin has also said that if the DMK retorts, then the BJP may not be able to stand it.

True to his words, the Tamil Nadu police arrested S.J. Suryah, BJP state secretary on a complaint by the Madurai CPI(M) district committee on charges of spreading false information on social media platforms against the party and its Madurai MP, Su Venkatesan.

In a related development, AIADMK Erode district IT Cell office-bearer Gowtham(24) was arrested on complaints by the DMK.