Rahul Gandhi slams Centre, says Centre thinks they can control people of TN

Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, Kerala. Photo: ANI

Ahead of the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday slammed the Centre and said the Centre thinks they can control the people of Tamil Nadu.

Gandhi even targeted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and alleged that he is a corrupt leader.

"I fall asleep at night in 30 seconds as I'm not afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. How long does Tamil Nadu CM take? He can't sleep at night as he isn't honest. Since he's dishonest he can't stand up against Mr Modi' who thinks he can control people of Tamil Nadu because Chief Minister is corrupt," Gandhi said while addressing a gathering.

Gandhi went ahead to say that the Centre cannot control the people of Tamil Nadu via a remote.

"Mr Modi thinks Tamil Nadu is like his television, he can pick up remote and do whatever he wants. He can put the volume up and CM will talk louder and vice versa. He thinks he can control people of Tamil Nadu, but people are going to remove the battery from the remote and throw it away," said Gandhi.

The Congress leader appreciated the efforts of the salt workers in the state.

He said, "Today a worker at salt pan told me 'salt we are collecting is helping fight Corona, work I'm doing here, collecting salt, goes into medicine used to treat coronavirus. I'm not only collecting salt but protecting the country from coronavirus'. That's the beauty of your state."

Tamil Nadu assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Friday.

With this announcement, the model code of conduct comes into force. The assembly elections in the southern state are important for the national as well as the regional political parties.

Polls will be held for 234 seats in Tamil Nadu with the Congress-DMK and BJP-AIADMK alliance being the major groups contesting against each other.