RK Nagar bypoll: Cooker' takes off the pressure through memes on social media
CHENNAI: If the “thoppi” (hat symbol allotted to T. T. V. Dhinakaran) earlier this year fuelled the makers of memes, the “pressure cooker” — the symbol allotted to Dhinakaran who emerged as the ‘star’ of the RK Nagar byelection on Sunday, ignited the imagination of many who flooded the social media with scores of hilarious and sarcastic memes — some glorifying the new RK Nagar legislator and many taking a dig at his political adversaries.
The television channels, which did not want to be left behind, were also abuzz with hilarious memes, thus providing the much needed respite to the people who were waiting with bated breath wondering who would emerge victorious in the bypoll. As the trends emerged in favour of Dhinakaran, the memes started making the appearance. One such referring to the Baahubali film, projected the previous RK Nagar MLA and former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa rescuing TTV Dhinakaran from drowning, indicating perhaps he was to be her political heir.
Though the ruling party members would not relish them, another one depicted the “notorious” image of the jailed VK Sasikala taking a vow at Jayalalithaa’s grave at Marina. The meme army projected it as Sasikala smashing the EPS-OPS faction.
Probably, the biggest and the most popular meme appeared to be Dhinakaran’s pressure cooker symbol. It appeared several times, portraying the other leaders being cooked or blown away by the cooker’s whistle.
Some memes took a dig at the BJP saying Tamil Nadu was not ready to welcome the communal politics of the saffron party. One meme even congratulated the famed film music director Gangai Amaran, the BJP candidate in the cancelled R. K. Nagar byelections in April, for refraining from contesting this time. The BJP lost its deposit money in the bypolls.
At the end of the keenly watched counting of votes, Dinakaran won the byelection for the Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency, defeating his nearest rival, E. Madhusudhanan of the AIADMK by a huge margin of 40,707 votes.
Dinakaran polled 72,518 votes and AIADMK’s Madhusudhanan got 39,029 votes. DMK candidate N. Marudhu Ganesh could secure 20,493 votes while BJP’s Karu Nagarajan could manage to obtain 1417 votes.
