AIADMK will face the worst rout in western Tamil Nadu: CM Stalin

The defeat of the AIADMK will be more pronounced in Tamil Nadu’s western districts, where its general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami had launched the party’s [Assembly] election campaign “as a supposed stronghold”, Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin said at Udumalpet in Tiruppur district on Monday (August 11, 2025).

According to Mr. Stalin, since the DMK government has performed remarkably well in the western districts, the AIADMK will suffer its worst defeat in the region, akin to the drubbing it had received in the local body polls.

While inaugurating completed projects, launching new ones, and disbursing financial benefits under government schemes in the region, Mr. Stalin listed the launch of the Athikadavu-Avinashi project as the first among the DMK government’s achievements. He alleged that Mr. Palaniswami was under the “delusion” that people thought of him on the lines of the late Chief Ministers M.G. Ramachandranaan and Jayalalithaa.

People cannot be deceived by “speaking lies aloud”, the Chief Minister said, adding: “Mr. Palaniswami is imagining stepping into the shoes of M.G. Ramachandran. He ought to know what people talk about him once he leaves the campaign spot.”

The revival of five road overbridge projects in Tiruppur to mitigate traffic snarls by the DMK government a decade after they were kept in cold storage by the AIADMK government was a case in point of Mr. Palaniswami’s neglect of the western region, Mr. Stalin said.

Speaking about certain “disrespectful” remarks about him (Mr. Stalin) made by Mr. Palaniswami lately, the Chief Minister said he was unperturbed and would keep following the dictum “talk less and work more”.

It was due to the “jealousy” triggered by the DMK’s performance, and ratification of Tamil Nadu’s economic growth by none other than the AIADMK’s ally, the BJP, that Mr. Palaniswami had approached the courts against the naming of the ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ scheme after himself, Mr. Stalin said, emphasising that the rejection of the case by the Supreme Court was tantamount to a slap for Mr. Palaniswami. The directive to the petitioner for the payment of ₹10 lakh as costs to the State government ought to cause shame to the AIADMK, Mr. Stalin said.

The DMK government has devised progressive schemes with utmost care and was committed to achieving new heights, he added.