Stalin hits back at Vijay, accuses him of surrendering to BJP

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DMK president M.K. Stalin. | Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan

DMK president M.K. Stalin on Friday questioned how many times Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay had spoken against the BJP and how many protests his TVK had organised against the national party. The former Chief Minister accused Mr. Vijay of “doing a revolution against BJP by being silent”, which he described as “surrender”.

In a post on X, Mr. Stalin said: “Mr. Vijay says he has stopped acting in films but continues to act before the people. I watched your dialogue delivery at today’s shooting in Madurantakam. I have a few questions for you.”

The DMK leader asked: “Without any sense of embarrassment, how can you say the TVK is a pure force and the DMK is an evil force, while keeping Maragatham Kumaravel, whom you bought over from the AIADMK and fielded as your party’s candidate, by your side? Is buying MLAs of the NDA even before the indelible ink on people’s fingers faded what you call a pure force?”

He sought to know if Mr. Vijay had seen the reception TVK candidates were receiving from people. “Are you really unaware that people are chasing them away, asking how much money they took from the TVK?”

Responding to Mr. Vijay’s remarks that the DMK and the BJP are one and the same, he asked whether people did not know who had rushed in the Assembly to demand that remarks against the BJP made by a Minister (TVK ally) be expunged from the Assembly records.

“When it comes to the schemes of your government, they are merely extensions of the schemes we introduced. The only innovative schemes you have introduced are the Vettri power-cut scheme, the Vettri sickle-attack scheme, the Vettri price-rise scheme, the Vettri dengue-fever scheme, and the Vettri milk-shortage scheme,” Mr. Stalin mocked.

He also accused Mr. Vijay of falsely claiming that DMK members were speaking in a derogatory manner about women and asked him to look at the track record of his own “virtual abusers.” “You shouted in a high pitch that I should open up on the Gem Veeramani case. Did you come without updating your script? I have already explained the matter in detail. You are the one who has not watched television or read the newspapers. I am only repeating what you said in the Assembly about the Opposition. You would have known only if you had read the newspaper,” Mr. Stalin said.

He also questioned whether officials had not informed him about the Madras High Court’s observation that the case should not be politicised.

Referring to the Karur stampede in a rally addressed by Mr. Vijay last year in which 41 people were killed, Mr. Stalin said: “Even though you ran away and hid without even paying attention to the loss of lives, I only said no leader would want his cadre to die. Neither I nor the DMK tried to derive petty political mileage from your cowardly act of running away.”

He said Mr. Vijay should introspect and ask himself whether he was speaking with dignity appropriate for the office of the Chief Minister.

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