"Hope to win convincingly": Karti Chidambaram ahead of TN polls

Pudukkottai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 20 : Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Monday said that Chief Minister MK Stalin's "image is very good" and expressed confidence that the DMK will "win convincingly" the Tamil Nadu polls scheduled to take place on April 23.

"We are the larger alliance. We have a natural advantage. The Chief Minister's image is very good. So we hope to win convincingly... We expect the DMK-led Congress participating alliance to win the election...," Chidambaram told ANI.

The Congress leader said that the opposition had voted against the Delimitation Bill.

"... The women's reservation bill was passed in 2023. It is part of our constitution. One-third of the seats are reserved for women. We are ready for the reservation of women as long as it is within the size of 543. What we voted against was the delimitation... If that bill had passed through, Tamil Nadu's seat share would have gone up from 39 to 51. But UP seat share would have gone up from 80 to 143... If that had happened, all you had to do was win a handful of seats in the north of India, and then you could rule India. We prevented that..."

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that the BJP is using their alliance partner AIADMK to "attack" the identity of Tamil Nadu.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that AIADMK has been "compromised in the hands of the BJP" and is no longer the party that once protected the identity of Tamil Nadu.

"In this election, they are trying to infiltrate the Tamil Nadu... AIADMK has had great leaders who have protected the idea of Tamil Nadu, but today's leaders are not like previous leaders. They are now compromised in the hands of the BJP," he said.

"BJP cannot directly harm you, so they have their partner AIADMK to attack your identity, history, and language. We are protecting Tamil culture, history, language, and traditions," he added.

Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in a single phase with the counting of votes scheduled for May 4.

The main contest is expected between the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, which includes the Indian National Congress, DMDK and VCK, and the National Democratic Alliance led by AIADMK with BJP and PMK as allies.

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