Stalin's charge: a 'corporate mafia government' is ruling Tamil Nadu, TVK has a 'secret alliance' with the BJP

DMK president M.K. Stalin on Saturday launched one of his sharpest attacks yet on the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, alleging that "a corporate mafia government has been ruling the State" and warning that the "real face" of the TVK would soon be exposed. Stalin further claimed that the people of Tamil Nadu would soon learn who was in a "secret alliance" with the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre — a charge aimed squarely at puncturing the TVK's self-image as an independent force equidistant from the national parties. The broadside comes just three days before the October 6 bypolls in Dharapuram and Madurantakam, where the DMK is locked in a multi-cornered contest against the ruling party. With the campaign in its final stretch, Stalin has been steadily sharpening his attack on the six-month-old government of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. It is not the first time the DMK leader has questioned the regime's credibility. In August, Stalin dismissed the TVK government's revised Budget as a "damp squib", charging that it was "completely silent" on the party's own electoral promises — including Rs 2,500 a month for women, Rs 4,000 for unemployed youth, six free LPG cylinders, and a complete waiver of crop loans. The opposition's two poles appear to be converging on the same theme. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami has separately questioned the TVK's claim of running a corruption-free government, arguing that the new regime's clean image is a slogan rather than a record. The TVK swept to power in April promising a decisive break from what it called the corrupt old politics of the Dravidian majors. Six months on, its principal rival calls it a corporate mafia with a secret BJP understanding, and its other rival calls its anti-corruption claim hollow. The party did not immediately respond to Stalin's latest allegation. Whether the "corporate mafia" charge sticks will be tested first at the ballot box on October 6 — and then, more severely, by the government's own record on the promises it made to win power.