COIMBATORE: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday took a sarcastic swipe at Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay’s supporters projecting him as a future prime minister. Palaniswami remarked that anyone is free to nurse outsized ambitions.“There is nothing wrong in dreaming. One can dream of becoming the Prime Minister, the President of India, or even replacing Donald Trump as the US President. But running a government requires real ground work, not just rolling out reels. Reels will not work there,” EPS said while interacting with reporters at the Coimbatore airport.He said effective governance cannot be substituted by social media gimmicks and viral reels.Palaniswami alleged that corruption has escalated sharply in Tamil Nadu, with bribe demands doubling across departments. He said bribery rates had spiked noticeably. “Earlier, officials used to demand Rs 10,000 as a bribe; now, they are demanding Rs 20,000. If people drop TVK chief Vijay’s name to get their work done, officials end up asking for even more,” Palaniswami alleged, citing recent Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) raids recovering unaccounted cash from multiple state offices as evidence of rampant graft.Dismissing speculation surrounding AIADMK legislators potentially switching over to the TVK camp, Palaniswami pointed to ongoing court cases involving defected lawmakers who are now attempting to reclaim their positions after finding no political traction.
