DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Tuesday rejected actor Rajinikanth’s view of a leadership vacuum in Tamil Nadu and demanded that BJP leader H. Raja should be arrested for his derogatory comments over iconic leader Periyar.
Responding to media queries about Rajinikanth’s speech in a college on Monday, Stalin said he does not agree that there was a leadership vacuum and insisted that the people of Tamil Nadu too would not accept this view.
He said the next government in the state would be headed by the DMK.
Rajinikanth said that after the demise of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and with DMK President M. Karunanidhi in poor health, there was a leadership vacuum in the state which he can fill.
Stalin said BJP’s Raja should be arrested under the Goondas Act for his violence provoking views.
In a social media message — later removed– Raja, referring to the razing of a Lenin statue in Tripura, said a similar fate awaited the statues of E.V. Ramasamy, the founder of Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu.
On the Cauvery river water sharing issue, Stalin said Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Monday spoke to him over phone over the convening of the state Assembly on March 8.
Stalin said Panneerselvam told him that convening of the Assembly could be considered after the meeting of the Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry called by the Union Water Resources Ministry on March 9.
According to Stalin, he agreed to the suggestion after stressing that the meeting called by the central ministry was a tactic to delay the setting up of Cauvery Management Board as ordered by the Supreme Court last month.