By G Babu Jayakumar & D Sekar
Copyright deccanchronicle
Chennai:Celebrations relating to the 116th birth anniversary of DMK founder and former Chief Minister C N Annadurai on Monday were turned into a campaign for the 2026 Assembly elections as the party members, led by Chief Minister M K Stalin, took an oath to not let down Tamil Nadu in various venues, particularly in front of all the 68,000 election booths in the State.The simultaneous oath-taking, perhaps the first of its kind on Annadurai’s birth anniversary, was aimed at enthusing the party cadre and workers, particularly the booth committee members, was aimed at bringing together the new members, enrolled through the ‘Oraniyil Tamil Nadu’ (Tamil Nadu in a single team) scheme, and the local functionaries at the polling booths to remind them of the coming elections.In the ‘We will not let down Tamil Nadu hang its head in shame’ pledge that the Chief Minister administered at the party headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in Chennai and the other leaders in front of their polling booths, the members vowed to fight against the unfair delimitation process that threatened to reduce the proportionate representation of the State in Parliament.Other pledges were to fight against ‘SIR’ (Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls) that was a bid to rob the voting rights of the people through fraudulent tampering of electoral rolls, oppose NEET or any other such scheme that would deprive youth of their opportunities in higher education.The DMK members also vowed to not let the State hang its head in shame by fighting against any discrimination that will go against the language, culture and greatness of Tamil Nadu and fight for getting the due funds to protect the welfare of women, farmers, fishermen, weavers, workers and every toiling class.A DMK press release said that State Ministers, MPs and MLAs took the pledge ‘not to let Tamil Nadu down’ at different places. While MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi was at Kanyakumari to take the oath with party members, Minister E V Velu was at Tiruvannamalai, Minister Thangam Thenarasu at Thiruchuzhi constituency, Minister M Subramanian at Saidapet, Nazar at Avadi, I Periyasamy at Dindigul, M R K Panneerselvam at Cuddalore, Periyakaruppan at Sivaganga Tirupattur and Regupathy at Pudukottai.The birth anniversary of Annadurai on September 15 is one of the three celebrations that mark the annual ‘Muperum Vizha’ (Three Great Festivals) of the DMK and the other two events are the founding of the DMK on September 16 and the birth anniversary of Periyar E V Ramasamy on September 17.The ‘Muperum Vizha,’ attended by Stalin, has been organised in a grand scale at Karur. Former State Minister V Senthil Balaji is making the arrangements and keeping with the latest political trend of holding such events in sprawling grounds, work is going on at a 50 acre plot of land as three lakh party cadre are expected to participate in it.
