AIADMK to hold hunger strike on June 27 over Kallakurichi hooch tragedy

Chennai, Jun 26 (PTI) Tamil Nadu's main opposition party AIADMK on Wednesday said it would hold a hunger strike here on June 27 demanding a CBI probe into the deaths in the state due to illicit arrack consumption.

Asserting that his party's protests would continue till justice is done over the hooch deaths, AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami said the fast is to demand a CBI investigation and to condemn the "denial of permission" to the opposition in the state assembly to raise the issue.

The Leader of the Opposition said in a post on social media platform X that the hunger strike at Rajarathinam stadium here would be led by him, and his party legislators would take part.

He said that denying the opposition an "honest debate" over the hooch tragedy and evicting AIADMK MLAs and suspending them goes against democracy.

The former chief minister condemned what he described as the "diversionary politics" of the DMK government, which it is allegedly indulging in rather than taking action.

AIADMK legislators, including Palaniswami, were on Wednesday suspended from the ongoing assembly session for disrupting the house proceedings.

Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, Palaniswami alleged that a deliberate attempt was made to prevent the principal opposition from raising the issue of the tragic deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor in Kallakurichi.

“We have been struggling to raise the issue for the past five days. They said permission will be granted as per rules but they denied permission when we went by the rules,” the former CM said. PTI VGN VGN ANE