PTI
Chennai
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday announced free refrigerators for all rice category of ration cardholders if his party is voted to power in the 2026 Assembly election.
Also, he assured to provide one kilo of dal and one litre of cooking oil for free to rice ration cardholders in Tamil Nadu, and one-time grant of Rs 10,000 to every family to manage tax burden
and price rise.
There are nearly 2.22 crore rice ration cardholders in the state who receive free rice, and commodities such as sugar, toor dal, and palmolein oil at subsidised prices every month through the public distribution system networked 34,773 fair price shops
across Tamil Nadu.
Palaniswami’s announcements toe the line of the party leader and late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who had announced the populist scheme to provide free fans, mixies, and grinders as part of the AIADMK election manifesto ahead of the 2011 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. After coming to power, she launched the distribution of these freebies on September 15, 2011, coinciding with former Chief Minister C N Annadurai’s birth anniversary.
Releasing the party’s poll manifesto for the April 23 election, at the AIADMK state headquarters here, Palaniswami said, “The free fridge is meant to reduce the household workload of homemakers.”
The party has already promised three free LPG cylinders per year to eligible households, and Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia for families in case the Jallikattu bull tamers die during the sport, were among the numerous assurances in the AIADMK manifesto.
He had already announced a slew of welfare measures for women, such as Rs 2,000 monthly aid, Amma 2-wheelers to 5 lakh working women with subsidy of Rs 25,000, waiver of education loans obtained from banks, assured hiking social security pensions for elderly and others to Rs 2,000, free bus travel scheme for men, similar to women; increase rural employment scheme to 150 days, and one-time grant of Rs 10,000 to every family to manage tax burden, price rise.
Palaniswami hit out at the DMK regime over alleged “commission, collection, and corruption” while releasing the party’s manifesto.
