On DMK Leader's "Joker" Remark, BJP Tamil Nadu Chief's "Useless" Retort

Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K Annamalai hit back at Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Dayanidhi Maran's 'joker' remarks saying that the latter is 'useless' without family's surname.

Annamalai also targeted the ruling DMK for Dayanidhi Maran's remarks accusing the party of resorting to 'abuse and filth.'

"DMK party is founded on the language of filth. And if you look at DMK's history their abuse of women, their intolerance for any newcomer and the kind of abusive language they brought into political vocabulary, nobody in our state has done over the last 70 years. DMK stands for abuse at its worst," the BJP chief said.

"And this is coming from a person Dayanidhi Maran. If you remove the word Maran from there, he will not even get a job as anybody in any place. He is totally useless without his family's surname. But unfortunately, when they know they are losing, DMK will always take recourse to abuse and filth," he added.

The BJP leader further said that he will wear the "abuses" by DMK as a 'badge of honour' while projecting himself as "self-made".

"If DMK is abusing me, I take it as a badge of honour because all of us are self-made people from the ground by virtue of hard work, we are standing in a position trying to serve our people, not like Mr Maran or Mr Stalin or Mr Udhayanidhi. Only because of their family initial, they are in politics," Annamalai said.

In an interview with India Today, Dayanidhi Maran, a former union minister, sought to dismiss the challenge posed by Annamalai in the Lok Sabha polls. "Who's that? Oh, the Joker, you are talking about the Joker. Are you overestimating, he is a lame duck," Dayanidhi Maran said.

He was asked a question about the "fear of Annamalai" and if he is the rising star of the BJP.

Following the DMK leader's remarks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Annamalai's defence and said that it reflected the character of the ruling party in the state and that 'arrogance is against the great culture of Tamil Nadu'.

"DMK is a party that is immersed in the arrogance of power. When a senior leader of DMK was asked about our young leader Annamalai, he said in arrogance 'Who is he, who is that' and used insulting words. This arrogance is against Tamil Nadu's great culture. The people of Tamil Nadu will never like this arrogance," PM Modi said while addressing a public rally in Mettupalayam.

However, reiterating his words, Dayanidhi Maran said that he stands by his words.

"He (Annamalai) keeps on changing his stance. First, he was against NEET. Now he supports NEET. He says that he doesn't know Hindi. Then he now speaks fluent Hindi. He keeps on changing his colours like a Chameleon. He behaves like a joker. So I stand by my stand words. He is a joker. We need people like him. He's a good entertainer. Please Annamalai, continue," Dayanidhi Maran said earlier in the day.

Annamalai is fighting the Lok Sabha polls from Coimbatore for BJP while DMK has fielded Ganapathy P Rajkumar. Dayanidhi Maran is contesting the polls from Chennai Central.

All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will vote in a single phase on April 19 in Lok Sabha polls that will be held in seven phases. Votes will be counted on June 4 . In 2019, the DMK-led alliance swept the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, winning 38 of 39 seats.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)