CM Stalin to skip PM Modi's Pamban bridge opening event, will inaugurate Ooty projects

CHENNAI: Engaged in a political and administrative face-off with the BJP-led Union government ahead of an election year, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has chosen to skip Sunday’s inauguration of the Pamban Bridge by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Stalin headed for the Western Ghats a day prior to Modi’s visit to inaugurate finished projects in the Nilgiris.

The CM will inaugurate finished projects and lay foundations for new projects in the Nilgiris on Sunday, just about the time PM Modi will formally declare the country’s first vertical lift sea bridge at Pamban in Rameswaram open.

Wary of the media glare, the State Information and Publicity department late on Friday issued an ‘advance release’ related to the CM’s Ooty visit, stating the chief minister will be inaugurating 1,703 finished projects worth Rs 494.51 crore and lay foundation stone for 56 new development projects worth Rs 102.17 crore in Ooty.

Though the official invitation circulated by the Southern Railway for the Pamban event named Stalin and a couple of his cabinet colleagues among the list of invitees, highly placed state government sources disclosed to DT Next that the CM has preferred to remain in the hill town and deputed two ministers to the PM’s event.

Officials conceded privately that CMs in the past have deferred their scheduled events to attend VVIP events, but this time it was a matter of choice. A few critics speculated that the CM could wrap up the Ooty event and fly to Rameswaram to rub shoulders with the PM.

DMK insiders admitted that the CM’s abstention was a message to the BJP. “Why should our leader attend the event when the PM refuses to release funds the state is entitled to? For courtesy and protocol sake, our ministers will participate, as a mark of respect to the office of PM and the public benefits of the railway schemes. This is our way of conveying our dissent to the Union government.”