DMK Worried About Being Dubbed Anti-Women After Raja's Speech

As the campaign for Tamil Nadu Assembly elections enters the home stretch, the DMK, which is leading in most opinion polls, is suddenly faced with an unexpected challenge. The party is being painted anti-women thanks to former Union minister A. Raja바카라�s derogatory comments on Chief Minister Palaniswami바카라�s birth and his mother.

The AIADMK and its allies have leveraged Raja바카라�s words to whip up fear in the minds of women voters asking them: 바카라�If this is how they treat a chief minister바카라�s mother imagine the fate of ordinary women if the DMK comes to power.바카라� Right from the chief minister other campaigners of the AIADMK front are now playing that line repeatedly.

 바카라�Why should they harp on an issue that is dead after Raja바카라�s apology? It only shows that they are staring at defeat and have no other issue to put the DMK on the defensive. They even got the Prime Minister to plug the same line forgetting how a woman IAS officer was scarred for life by acid attack because she refused to toe Jayalalithaa바카라�s line during her first term,바카라� pointed out DMK advocate Kannadasan. A. Raja, too in his reply to the EC notice, claimed that the controversy has been put to rest with his apology.

But the fact that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an issue of not just A. Raja but also  DMK platform speaker Dindigul Leoni바카라�s comments about Tamil women losing their figure after drinking milk from imported Jersey cows proved that the NDA plans to milk this issue to the maximum. Modi even referred to Udhayanidhi바카라�s crass remarks about Palaniswami falling at Sasikala바카라�s feet after being elected Chief Minister in February 2017. 바카라�He fell at Sasikala바카라�s feet and lay there like a dead body. Before that he wriggled through tables and chairs to touch her feet. Given a chance he would have gone through her legs as well,바카라� Udhayanidhi had said in his January 2021 speech amidst laughter among the audience.

Udhayanidhi apologised only after he was slapped with a legal notice by Sasikala바카라�s nephew and AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, who had accused the DMK scion of resorting to vulgar language just like his grandfather Karunanidhi. DMK campaign managers are worried about the impact of Raja바카라�s speech and are actually hoping that the Election Commission would ban the Lok Sabha MP from campaigning. 바카라�We have a solid lead as the latest election survey by Junior Vikatan (a popular Tamil biweekly) has projected. We do not want to lose that advantage by some intemperate remarks which can be twisted to create misgivings in the minds of women voters,바카라� admitted a DMK MLA.

Even Raja바카라�s apology, which came with the rider that he is sorry if the CM has been hurt personally, was extracted by party president M.K. Stalin only after senior leaders felt that it could hurt the party바카라�s electoral prospects. Some of them even compared it with Mani Shankar Aiyar바카라�s infamous offer to Modi to set up a tea stall at the AICC session ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and how Modi had converted that jibe to his advantage.

BJP candidate from Thousand Lights actress Khushbu has with timely recall pointed out how DMK cadres had thrown chappals and pulled her pallu when she had gone to Tiruchy to attend a wedding. Apparently they were agitated about Khushbu바카라�s comments (she was with the DMK then) that Stalin was yet to prove his leadership qualities to succeed Karunanidhi. 바카라�When I had called Stalin for help he said he was having lunch. How can such a person protect the women of Tamil Nadu?바카라� she asked in an election meeting on Tuesday.

The coming days will see if the AIADMK can actually come up with ads in the mass media to paint the DMK as anti-woman when the party has gone out of its way to woo women voters. 바카라�Our cadres are playing Raja바카라�s speech on their mobile phones and showing them to women voters in every street. The shocking reaction from the womenfolk shows that our approach is working,바카라� said a member of the AIADMK바카라�s IT wing.

With just a week to go election-day the AIADMK hopes to whip up some kind of hysteria over the issue. The DMK wants to focus the attention of voters only on how close the DMK is to the winning post and not to be diverted by one speech.