MODI BRANDS DMK A ‘CORRUPTION, MAFIA AND CRIME’ MACHINE AS TAMIL NADU ELECTION BATTLE INTENSIFIES
Prime Minister ramps up attacks on the ruling Stalin government, labelling it a dynastic enterprise built on graft, as the state heads to the polls on April 23
With Tamil Nadu’s assembly election weeks away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sharpened his campaign offensive against the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, framing the contest as a straight choice between clean governance and what he describes as institutionalised corruption. Addressing large public rallies across the state, Modi coined the acronym CMC — standing for Corruption, Mafia and Crime — to characterise the M.K. Stalin-led administration, a tagline that has since become central to the BJP-NDA campaign message in the southern state.
Speaking at a public gathering in Tiruchirappalli, Modi accused the DMK of practising dynastic politics and what he called a “scientific corruption model,” asserting that the people of Tamil Nadu had already made up their minds for a change in government. He alleged that power within the party flows exclusively through a single family, with positions and patronage concentrated accordingly. “In DMK, everything starts and ends with one family. Ministers may change, MLAs may change, but power remains with one dynasty,” he told the crowd, adding that the same model was being used to treat Tamil Nadu as a revenue source for personal gain.
The Prime Minister also accused the DMK government of deliberately withholding central government schemes from Tamil Nadu’s citizens, alleging that the ruling party feared giving credit to the NDA. He pointed out that infrastructure funding to the state had tripled over the past decade and that the central government had channelled around Rs 3 lakh crore through devolution alone since 2014 — far more than during the previous Congress-DMK dispensation.
BJP’s Tamil Nadu election in-charge Piyush Goyal echoed these attacks at a press conference in Coimbatore, accusing the DMK of corruption, mismanagement, and failure to implement central schemes. He alleged the party was “scaring people” through police intimidation and suppressing media coverage of its alleged misdeeds. A formal chargesheet released by the BJP cited the state’s debt burden crossing Rs 10 lakh crore, alleged irregularities exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore in the state’s liquor marketing operations, and widespread scams in highway tenders and municipal contracts.
On the law and order front, Modi highlighted rising crime figures as evidence of administrative failure. The BJP’s chargesheet claimed POCSO cases had risen from 4,968 in 2022 to 6,969 in 2024, and that sexual crimes had increased from 3,260 to 5,319 over the same period. Modi also raised the issue of the drug menace, alleging that young people across the state were falling prey to narcotics while the government looked the other way.
The DMK, however, has pushed back firmly against the allegations. Party spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai argued that voters would respond at the ballot box just as they did in the 2021 assembly elections and the 2024 general elections — both of which the DMK won decisively. The party also pointed out that Tamil Nadu contributes significantly to the national tax pool but receives back only a fraction of that in central transfers, a financial grievance that resonated strongly with voters during the Lok Sabha polls.
Political analysts have noted that while Modi’s campaign rallies have drawn large crowds, his messaging has largely relied on familiar themes — dynastic rule, corruption, and drug abuse — without a sharply differentiated new pitch to break through the DMK’s entrenched support base. The party has long dominated Tamil Nadu politics through a combination of strong welfare delivery, identity politics rooted in Dravidian ideology, and its alliance with the Congress.
The contest on April 23 is shaping up as a three-way fight. The DMK leads the Secular Progressive Alliance alongside the Congress and other partners, while the NDA is led by the AIADMK with the BJP and PMK as allies. Actor-turned-politician Vijay’s newly formed party TVK is also set to contest, adding a further dimension to what is already one of the most closely watched state elections of the year. Results are expected on May 4.
