Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Minister T.R.B. Rajaa spar over South Korean firm shifting planned unit to Andhra Pradesh

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Saturday claimed that South Korean footwear firm Hwaseung, which had initially planned to set up a unit in Tamil Nadu, had announced that it would shift its operations to Andhra Pradesh.

In a post on his social media account, he displayed a picture of the Andhra Pradesh government’s order to provide incentives to the company. Finding fault with the DMK government over the development, he wondered what was the purpose of Prime Minister MK Stalin holding investor meetings both within and outside the country.

Responding to Mr Palaniswami’s claim, Industries Minister TRB Rajaa dismissed the accusation as “misleading, politically motivated and disconnected from facts”. In a post on A memorandum of understanding (MoU) became a firm investment only after such evaluations, he said, emphasizing that Chief Minister MK Stalin’s priority is balanced and region-wide growth.

Mr. Rajaa said Tamil Nadu, India’s most urbanized state, has valuable land that cannot be allocated without weighing incentives against the employment potential of each project. “Investments that are not compatible with the state’s decentralized growth target are not prioritized,” he argued. He said the Prime Minister’s Office receives a large number of proposals every day and this reflects strong investor confidence in the Dravidian Model government. He underlined that more than 77 percent of the Memorandums of Understanding signed since 2021 have already been translated into actual projects. Describing Tamil Nadu as one of India’s most reliable industrial destinations, he said the government “will not waste taxpayers’ money like other states” and added that if one project does not progress, “hundreds more are in the pipeline”.

PMK chief Anbumani Ramadoss said Hwaseung’s decision to move to Andhra Pradesh proved his party’s claim that Mr Stalin and Mr Rajaa had made misleading claims about private investments in Tamil Nadu.

protest in chennai

AIADMK will hold a protest in Chennai on Monday to highlight “irregularities” in the counting process of the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls carried out by members of the ruling DMK. In his statement, Mr. Palaniswami said booth-level officials “refused” to receive information from people regarding dead and duplicate voter entries.