AIADMK never compromised on farmers’ welfare, says Edappadi K. Palaniswami

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said on Monday (November 24, 2025) that his party had never compromised on the welfare of farmers and had protested while being in power as well as in the opposition.

The former Chief Minister addressed the media at the Salem airport on Monday evening. 

Responding to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s post on social media platform X on Monday, Mr. Palaniswami said officials of the Department of Agriculture knew the extent of area under ‘Kuruvai’ cultivation and the quantum of paddy that would be harvested. Had the paddy been procured immediately through direct paddy procurement centres, the produce would not have been damaged in the rain. Farmers were affected by the negligence on the part of the DMK government, he said.

While visiting farmers in the delta region, farmers told him that for 15 days, paddy was not procured, and the procured paddy was not sent to the godowns from the procurement centres. Adequate manpower for procuring the paddy and lorries for transporting it was not available owing to the non-payment of transport charges, he said. In the past four years of DMK rule, the ‘Kuruvai’ farmers were not included in the crop insurance schemes. “When the farmers were affected, I went to the delta region and met them. But the Chief Minister went to watch a film,” the Leader of the Opposition recalled.

Claiming that the AIADMK would never compromise on farmers’ issues, Mr. Palaniswami said, “For the past 50 years I have been farming. But the DMK is an anti-farmer party. While Mr. Stalin was the Deputy Chief Minister, an MoU was signed for the extraction of methane in the delta region. But the AIADMK government declared the delta region a protected agriculture zone”. When the AIADMK was in power, compensation was given to farmers twice in a year while they were affected. The State government did not reveal why the Union government had rejected the proposal to increase the limit of moisture content in the procured paddy. The three farm laws (which were scrapped by the Union government in 2021) would have affected only farmers in north Indian States because the ‘mandi’ concept prevails there. The three laws would have been beneficial to Tamil Nadu. Mr. Stalin did not know what these laws were, Mr. Palaniswami alleged. 

Replying to the criticism of Minister for Natural Resources S. Regupathy against him over the appointment of a regular Director-General of Police, Mr. Palaniswami said that even after UPSC sent three names, the Tamil Nadu government was yet to act. The DMK did not favour the three names, he said.

Mr. Palaniswami said that in every Assembly constituency has at least 20,000 to 40,000 fake, dead, and double-entry voters. Using them, the DMK had won in the elections so far. Hence, the party opposed the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls. He alleged that DMK workers had allegedly signed on the enumeration forms on behalf of residents of apartments. The AIADMK lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India and ECI officials were expected to visit the State in a couple of days to inquire into allegations, Mr. Palaniswami added.