PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Thursday said that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had no right to talk about social justice, and any threat to the 69% reservation in the State would result in the dismissal of the DMK government.

Addressing an election meeting in the Vikravandi Assembly constituency, where a byelection is slated for July 10, he canvassed votes for his party’s candidate C. Anbumani.

According to him, the DMK had always claimed to champion welfare schemes that ensured social justice, but in reality, it had done nothing to ensure social justice to the weak and the marginalised sections of society.

Mr. Anbumani said that the Tamil Nadu government enacted a special law in 1994 to safeguard the 69% reservation by placing it in the Ninth Schedule. Now, exempting [the issues placed in] the Ninth Schedule from judicial review has been challenged. Any threat to the 69% quota would not bode well for the DMK, he added.

The PMK president further said that the people were angry with the ruling DMK, and urged them to vote for the PMK to bring about a change. He alleged that the DMK was violating the election norms by resorting to money and muscle power to win the byelection.

He termed the hooch deaths in Kallakurichi a “State-sponsored murder”, for which the DMK government was solely responsible, and alleged that the government failed to take action.

Though the Chief Minister had claimed that the sale of hooch would be crushed with an iron hand following a similar incident in Marakkanam last year, nothing has been done, he added.

BJP president K. Annamalai, and AMMK general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran spoke.