Chennai, February 18 Senior BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister M K Stalin was advocating for state autonomy without conducting local body elections in Tamil Nadu.
She accused him of bypassing the democratic decentralization process by administering local bodies through officials instead of holding elections.
"Chief Minister M K Stalin, who has taken away the powers of local bodies in 27 districts for a year without holding elections and is administering them through officials, is now talking about state autonomy," Tamilisai Soundararajan said, responding to the chief minister's demand.
The former governor stated that he was criticizing the Central government, which treats all states equally.
"He is unable to devolve powers to local bodies in Tamil Nadu, and the DMK is unable to seek votes based on development. The demand for state autonomy only reflects a fear of defeat in the upcoming elections," Tamilisai said in a post on the social media platform 'X'.
Earlier in the day, Stalin proposed a constitutional amendment to strengthen federalism and state autonomy.
He tabled the first part of the Justice Kurian Joseph Committee report on Union-State relations in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, stating that federalism is about trust and autonomy.
