TN CM Stalin talking about state autonomy without holding civic polls: BJP’s Tamilisai Soundararajan

Chennai, Feb 18 (PTI) Senior BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday claimed that Chief Minister M K Stalin was raising the pitch for state autonomy without conducting local body elections in Tamil Nadu.

She alleged that instead of following the process of democratic decentralisation, he was administering local bodies through officials.

"Chief Minister M K Stalin, who has taken away the rights of local bodies in 27 districts for a year without holding elections and is administering them through officials, is talking about state autonomy today," Tamilisai Soundararajan said, responding to the chief minister’s demand.

She said he was criticising the Central government, which treats all states equally.

"He is unable to devolve powers to local bodies in Tamil Nadu, and the DMK is not able to seek votes on the development plank. The demand for state autonomy only reflects fear of defeat at the hustings," Tamilisai said in a post on social media platform 'X'.

Earlier in the day, Stalin proposed a Constitutional amendment to strengthen federalism and state autonomy.

Tabling the first part of the Justice Kurian Joseph Committee report on Union-State relations in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, he said federalism was about trust and autonomy. PTI JSP SSK