Shah slams Stalin over central funds, delimitation, says Centre gave Rs 5 lakh cr to TN in 10 yrs

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Feb 26 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday denied any injustice to Tamil Nadu by the Centre as claimed by M K Stalin over fund allocation and described as diversionary attempts, the Chief Minister raking up the delimitation issue.

Refuting Stalin’s claims, Shah said the Narendra Modi government has provided Rs 5,08,337 crore to the state during the 2014-24 period.

Also, he accused Stalin of spreading a misinformation campaign on the delimitation exercise. Seeking to put to rest speculation on the subject, he asserted no southern state including Tamil Nadu would see a reduction in the Parliamentary representation when delimitation will be done on pro-rata basis.

Lashing out at the ruling DMK dispensation on the ‘failure’ of law and order in the state, Shah, speaking after inaugurating the BJP party office here, said “the anti-national tendency is at all-time high in Tamil Nadu.”

“Tamil Nadu government provided security during the last journey of 1998 bomb blast accused and mastermind (SA Basha),” the Home Minister said.

He claimed the drug mafia enjoyed a free hand in selling drugs in the state and that illegal mining mafia was making politics corrupt here.

“All the leaders of DMK have got Master’s degree in corruption,” he charged at the event.

While the people of the state were anguished over a number of issues, “the CM and his son (Udhayanidhi) have taken up some issue to divert public attention.”

“They are going to do a meeting on delimitation saying we won’t allow any injustice to south,” Shah said about the March 5 all-party meeting convened by the TN government over the issue.

The Modi government has made it clear in the Lok Sabha that no southern state will lose even one seat after delimitation, the BJP veteran said.

He exuded confidence the NDA will come to power in Tamil Nadu next year after the Assembly elections and that the win would be bigger than the saffron bloc’s Maharashtra and Haryana victories.

On the occasion, Shah virtually inaugurated the party offices at Tiruvannamalai and Ramanathapuram.