Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay has hit out at DMK chief and former Chief Minister MK Stalin over his comments on the TVK candidate for the Dharapuram bypoll.
He also targeted Sathyabhama, who had won the Dharapuram constituency as an AIADMK candidate in the recent Assembly election and resigned from the seat weeks later before switching to the ruling TVK. Attacking Stalin, Vijay called his comments uncivilised. “Under the guise of a campaign public meeting for the Dharapuram constituency by-election, Mr Stalin, the leader of the evil force that is the DMK, has conducted a defamatory and utterly uncivilized gathering. Regarding our Dharapuram constituency candidate, Sister Mrs Sathiyabama, he has resorted to caricature mockery and spoken in the most indecent manner, deriving perverse pleasure from it,” Vijay posted on X. “These evil forces, who are experts at speaking obscenely about women, and that too, with women seated right beside them, will receive a fitting retort from the people of Tamil Nadu and the people of the Dharapuram constituency. She is now contesting the bypoll as the TVK candidate. The party has demanded an apology from the DMK chief. The TVK has denied allegations of horse-trading and has argued that elected legislators are entitled to resign and join another party, without attracting disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Stalin had targeted TVK candidate Sathyabhama, calling her “Somersault Bhama” and invited criticism from the ruling party, which accused the former Chief Minister of body-shaming the woman Dalit candidate and demanded an apology. Calling the DMK a repeat offender when it comes to comments on women, he said people will not forget the party. TVK leader and Health Minister Arun Raj accused Stalin of body-shaming Sathyabhama and said the remark amounted to an insult to women and the Dalit community.
