Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK, a key constituent of the INDIA bloc in its manifesto released on Wednesday promised to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 if the opposition alliance wins the LS polls. Disbanding the current NITI Aayog, set up by the BJP regime and establishing again the Planning Commission to draft plans based on the requests of state governments is another assurance the DMK has made.
It touched upon issues like the appointment of Governors and the abolition of Article 356. The manifesto promises not to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Educational Policy (NEP) and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state.
It says till the office of governor is abolished, a governor of the State should be appointed in consultation with the CM of the State. It added that Article 361 which provided immunity to governors against criminal proceedings will be abolished.
During the meeting held in Chennai, Chief Minister M K Stalin said the manifesto was made after taking feedback from the public all over the state. “It is not only a DMK manifesto but the people’s manifesto. When the BJP came to power in 2014, they destroyed India. None of the election promises were fulfilled. We have formed the INDIA alliance and we will form our government in 2024. In our manifesto, we have announced special schemes for TN and schemes for every district are given in this manifesto,” he added.
The ruling DMK also released the list of candidates for 21 seats for the Lok Sabha elections that will see sitting MPs Kanimozhi and A Raja contesting from Thoothukudi and Nilgiris, respectively. It has allotted the remaining 18 seats to its allies–Congress, Left parties and VCK among others.
The party has fielded Kalanidhi Veeraswamy from North Chennai, Thamizhachi Thangapandian from South Chennai and Dayanidhi Maran from Central Chennai. Of the 21 names the ruling party fielded, 11 were new faces.
