Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has strongly countered Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that Tamil Nadu received three times more funds under the BJP-led NDA government. Taking to X, Chidambaram questioned the metric behind Modi's statement, arguing that economic figures naturally rise due to inflation and GDP growth. “Ask any first-year economics student, they'll tell you numbers alone don't reflect progress unless measured proportionally,” Chidambaram said.

He accused the Prime Minister of cherry-picking absolute numbers, ignoring the context of GDP and total expenditure proportions. Modi had earlier cited a sevenfold increase in Tamil Nadu's railway budget since 2014 while inaugurating the New Pamban Bridge. Chidambaram, however, urged the public to scrutinize the data critically, rather than accept inflated numbers at face value.

With elections looming, the war of words intensifies over development metrics and the true scale of central support for Tamil Nadu.