Chennai (Tamil Nadu): Union Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday hit the Lok Sabha election campaign trail in Tamil Nadu's North Chennai and lashed out at the DMK leaders' alleged anti-Sanatana Dharma remarks. "Today, I stand in a state that is renowned for its spiritual power, its saints, and its culture, and that is why the nation is outraged when the DMK leaders attacked Sanatana Dharma," she added.
The BJP leader who is the Union Minister for Women and Child Development was campaigning to support North Chennai BJP candidate Paul Kanagaraj. The campaign, which kicked off at Othavadai Street in Nammalwarpet Market in Chennai saw Irani attacking the opposition bloc INDI alliance.
"Today, the Congress party says they want to protect democracy. My question to the Congress party is how will they protect democracy when they are with the DMK? Irani said. She also said that how could the Congress party and the INDIA which takes the support of terrorist organisation's political leadership protect democracy in the country.
The Congress today to fight election even in a state like Kerala takes the support of banned terrorist organisations like the PFI's political leadership, Irani said. And I saw that in Wayanad, the INDI alliance is fighting, but when they meet in Delhi, they are hugging each other. And today I am in Tamil Nadu; I can only say, In Delhi, they are hugging; in Kerala, they are begging; and in Tamil Nadu, they are thugging.
Voting for all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the only constituency in Puducherry will be held in the first phase on April 19. During polling for the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats.
"The DMK-led alliance secured a landslide victory by bagging 38 out of 39 seats. The Congress, which was also a part of the alliance, bagged 8 seats out of the nine contested. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, won only one seat.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Indian National Congress candidate V Vaithilingam won the only seat in the Puducherry Parliamentary Constituency. The polling will be conducted in seven phases across the country from April 19 to June 1. The counting of votes will be on June 4.
