Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday called upon the people to take a pledge on the occasion of Formation Day to make Tamil Nadu a leading state in the country.
Briefly tracing the history, he said the linguistic re-organisation of states on November 1, 1956, led to the carving of many states from the then Madras presidency but Tamil Nadu alone had to wait for 11 more years to get the present name.
"In 1967, the DMK captured power for the first time and the great son of the soil C N Annadurai became the Chief Minister. He gave the name: Tamil Nadu to the state on July 18 the same year," Stalin said in a tweet referring to a unanimous resolution passed in then Madras state legislative assembly on renaming the state as Tamil Nadu.
The struggle to rename the state ran deep starting from orator Maraimalai Adigal, rationalist leader E V Ramasamy, writer Somasundara Bharatiar to Independence activist Sankaralinganar, who sacrificed his life, and freedom fighter M P Sivagnanam (Ma Po Si), he said.
"On this historic #TamilNadu_Day, let's take a pledge to strive to make the state a premier in all fields. Let the light of unique Tamil Nadu spread all over India," the Chief Minister further appealed.
-With PTI Input
