DMK will take all out steps to coordinate opposition: Stalin

Press Trust of India

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has said the DMK will take all steps to coordinate the opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Addressing reporters upon his arrival here from Japan on Wednesday night, he also charged the ruling BJP at the Centre with trying to "intimidate" opposition parties using agencies like Income Tax, CBI and ED, while responding to the I-T searches at relatives and individuals linked to his cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji last week.

As far as the BJP government is concerned, avenging and targeting (other political parties) using IT, ED and CBI is already happening in other states. IT has started here, he said. The Chief Minister returned here following a nine-day official trip of Singapore and Japan to attract more investments in the state.

Asked about his meeting with AAP leaders -- CMs of Delhi and Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann respectively -- here on Thursday and if it was part of "coordinating the opposition", the DMK President said, "That effort is already on."

"This is not new. DMK will also be involved in it wholeheartedly," he said. To a query about the 'Sengol' (sceptre) being installed in the new Parliament building and if it signified Tamil pride, the CM said that would have been the case if it was truly from the Chola dynasty as claimed.

"The Sengol was bent following the way in which our women wrestlers were assaulted" that day by police, he said, referring to their protest demanding arrest of Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for alleged sexual harassment. On his two-nation trip, Stalin said investment proposals over Rs 3,000 crore have been signed