“I welcome his suggestion, but I don’t know what his beef is with Modi,” MK Stalin

“I welcome his suggestion, but I don’t know what his beef is with Modi,” MK Stalin quipped in response to the comments today.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu MK Stalin, taking a swipe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comment on a “person from Tamil Nadu as prime minister”, wondered why the BJP leader “is angry with Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

“I welcome his suggestion, but I don’t know what his anger is with Modi,” Mr Stalin quipped in response to the comments today in Salem.

Amit Shah had, on Sunday, reportedly urged his party workers in Tamil Nadu to work hard in order to ensure that someone from Tamil Nadu becomes prime minister in the future.

Seizing on that remark, Mr Stalin responded: “If the BJP has the idea that a Tamilian should be the Prime Minister, there are Tamilisai Soundararajan (Telangana Governor) and L Murugan (Union Minister). I think they may get a chance to be Prime Minister candidates”.

According to some senior BJP leaders, Amit Shah also claimed that the DMK had prevented two senior state leaders from becoming prime ministers in the past. During a closed-door meeting with party workers, Mr Shah reportedly alleged that K Kamaraj and GK Moopanar had been prevented by the DMK from becoming prime minister.

Refuting the claim, MK Stalin challenged Mr Shah to make his statement public, so that the DMK could give a detailed explanation.

The DMK also questioned Mr Shah’s assertions about the Centre’s initiatives for Tamil Nadu and said the allocation of funds, as stated by him, was part of the government’s “constitutional duty”.

DMK Parliamentary Party leader TR Baalu claimed Mr Shah could not point out any “special schemes” as sought by Mr Stalin.