Twitter handles of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidates in Tamil Nadu have been busy “welcoming” Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the poll-bound state and asking him to “campaign” in their constituencies. Confused? Well, this is the DMK’s sarcastic jibe at the PM and the BJP, hinting that victory margins of DMK candidates will increase in seats where Modi campaigns.
Modi is in Tami Nadu campaigning for the AIADMK-NDA alliance candidates. Most of the DMK candidates used identically worded tweets, asking the Prime Minister to campaign for their rivals in the AIADMK-BJP alliance.
“Dear Prime Minister @narendramodi, please campaign in Thiruchendur. I am the DMK candidate here and it will help me in widening my winning margin. Thank you sir,” Anitha Radhakrishnan, DMK candidate from Tiruchendur tweeted.
Sitting MLA and DMK candidate from Ranipet, R Gandhi wrote, “Dear Prime Minister @narendramodi, please campaign in Ranipet. I am the DMK candidate here and it will help me in widening my winning margin. Thank you sir.”
SR Raja, who won from Tambaram Assembly constituency in 2016, tweeted, “Dear Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Please campaign for TKM Chinnayya. I am the DMK candidate against him and it will be very useful in widening my winning margin. Thank you sir.”
A tweet by Ambeth Kumar read, “Dear Prime Minister @narendramodi, please campaign in Vandavasi. I am the DMK candidate here and it will help me in widening my winning margin. Thank you sir.
Incumbent MLA A Maharajan, who is the DMK candidate from Andipatti, a seat that both MGR and Jayalalithaa have represented, wrote, “Dear Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi. Please campaign for the AIADMK candidate of Andipatti. I am the DMK candidate against him and it will be very useful in widening my winning margin. Thank you sir.”
The DMK and its allies won 38 out of 39 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections, at a time when the BJP swept the polls in other parts of the country. In 2019 and in 2021, the DMK has firmly placed itself as a force opposing the BJP and the AIADMK combine. The DMK is banking on the public’s ire towards many policies adopted by the Union government and has asked people not to vote for the AIADMK, the BJP’s ally in the state.
In an interview with TNM, MK Stalin had said, “People of Tamil Nadu believe in social justice of the true kind. Anyone who tries to sow the seeds of inequality, religious divisions, or any kind of oppression in the state would be strongly opposed. The people of Tamil Nadu will show the BJP that they will not bow to any power outside the state. AIADMK’s servility towards the BJP won’t change that.”
(The article was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission)
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