CM Vijay Condemns Stalin Bodyshaming TVK Bypoll Candidate P Sathyabama
Calling the DMK "anti-democratic," Vijay alleged that vulgarity and hostility were embedded in its ideology and accused Stalin of proudly fostering a toxic political culture in the party
Chennai: The alleged derogatory and body shaming remark made by DMK president M K Stalin against the TVK candidate for the Dharapuram Assembly by-election, P Sathyabama, at his campaign meeting on Thursday has snowballed into a major controversy with Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay spearheading a tirade against Stalin on Saturday.
Stalin’s campaign in Dharapuram was nothing but slander, misogyny and abuse, Vijay said, condemning the remarks as a ‘son and a brother of Tamil women and expressing the hope that the voters of Dharapuram would give him a fitting reply in the elections on October 6.
In his X post, Vijay said Stalin had conducted a ‘defamatory and uncivilized meeting’ in Dharapuram in the guise of an election campaign and had derived pleasure out of making body-shaming and derogatory remarks against his party candidate Sathyabama.
Vulgarity and hostility were embedded in the ideology of the DMK, which was an anti-democratic force and Stalin was proudly fostering the toxic political culture in the party, Vijay said, adding that the people of Tamil Nadu had long realised that obscenity, malice and vulgarity were intertwined in the DMK's DNA.
The DMK members specialised in speaking obscenely about women, even in their presence, completely indifferent to their discomfort, he said and expressed the confidence that voters in the State, particularly those in Dharapuram, would not tolerate such behaviour.
At the DMK campaign meeting, Stalin criticised Sathyabama, who had won the election from the same constituency in an AIADMK ticket, for defecting to the ruling party and used terms like as ‘petti’ (box) and ‘balti’ (somersault) to imply that she had changed parties in lieu of money.
PWD Minister Aadhav Arjuna filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik accusing Stalin of making derogatory and body shaming remarks against Sathyabama with the view to preventing her from campaigning in the elections.
Urging the Election Commission to cancel the star campaigner status of Stalin, Arjuna wanted the District Returning Officer to file a police complaint against Stalin under the Prohibition of Women’s Harassment Act and ensure the candidate’s free and fearless participation in the campaign.
Earlier, Energy and Law Minister R Nirmal Kumar told reporters that the DMK leadership was showing its real character out of frustration caused by the fear of impending defeat in the by-election and that the party had nothing positive to tell the voters. Both Stalin and Udhayanidhi Stalin had lost self-control, he said.