NDA leader will be PM in 2029, EPS will be back as CM: AIADMK
Madurai: Even as allies TVK and Congress are projecting their respective leaders as prime ministerial candidates in 2029, former AIADMK ministers have said neither chief minister C Joseph Vijay nor Rahul Gandhi will become the PM.
They also said that simultaneous elections would be conducted for the state assembly along with parliamentary elections and that EPS would come to power in Tamil Nadu. Instead, an NDA leader endorsed by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami would be the PM, AIADMK leaders said on Friday.
Whoever EPS endorses as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate will receive the people’s mandate in the 2029 Lok Sabha election,” said former minister R B Udhayakumar.
He said the Tamil Nadu assembly election would be held simultaneously under the proposed “One Nation, One Election” system. “EPS would then return as chief minister,’’ he said. Another former minister, Sellur K Raju, said the Vijay govt was unstable and could collapse before completing its term. “Your film (Jananayagan) did not run, and your govt will not run either,” he said. Raju said the govt remained dependent on its allies. Nobody knows when its oxygen level will fall or when life support will be withdrawn,” he said stating that Congress or the communist parties could withdraw support at any time. Rejecting comparisons between Vijay and AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran, Raju said, “Can you match even one of the thousand things MGR did?”
“Edappadi K Palaniswami’s five decades in public life would give him a decisive role within NDA. “The patient is still in the ICU. Udhayakumar on Friday said the debate over projecting Vijay or Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate had exposed divisions between TVK and Congress.