Madurai (Tamil Nadu), April 6 Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday that there was a wave of change in Tamil Nadu in favor of the NDA, and the ensuing Assembly elections will see the DMK, which is "deeply entrenched in corruption and opposed to Tamil Nadu's age-old traditions," defeated.
He expressed confidence that, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP allies, the NDA will form the government in the state.
"People have seen the misrule of the DMK. Almost 75 per cent of the DMK's Cabinet has criminal charges, and they are deeply corrupt. The state is going to the dogs. Women, senior citizens, and children are not safe," Fadnavis told reporters here.
Over the last four years, the number of cases of child sexual abuse has doubled, the drug menace is increasing, and people have seen "a connivance between the DMK and all these criminals," he said, criticizing the DMK.
"That is why I believe that people will respond to the DMK by voting the NDA to power," the CM said, responding to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin's criticism of Modi's 'double engine' government remark as a "dabba engine."
According to him, under the DMK regime, people were living under a huge debt which has crossed Rs 10 lakh crore, and the debt-to-GDP ratio has crossed 33 per cent, taking the state into a "debt trap."
"This is the misrule of this DMK government," he added.
Regarding the DMK's opposition to the three-language policy, Fadnavis said, "We are one people, one nation, and we should take pride in our language, and at the same time, we should respect other languages of our country."
On the Karthigai Deepam lamp lighting row, the Maharashtra CM said, the BJP supports Tamil Nadu's tradition and accuses the DMK of "disturbing the age-old tradition for vote bank politics."
"This tradition (of lamp lighting) has been there for a long time and did not start after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. Why does the DMK want to stop it? It is only for vote bank politics that the DMK is playing, and the people will show it to the DMK in the election results," Fadnavis, who earlier visited the renowned Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple here, said.
He accompanied the BJP candidate for Madurai South, Rama Srinivasan, during the filing of the nomination papers.
After visiting the Meenakshi Amman Temple, Fadnavis said, “I have visited the sacred Meenakshi Amman Temple and sought blessings from Mata Meenakshi and Bhagwan Shivji. I have prayed that Tamil Nadu sees change and gets good governance under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I have sought blessings that Tamil Nadu gets a BJP-AIADMK alliance government so that the aspirations of the people are fulfilled.”