Chennai, Oct 7 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Information Minister Rajmohan on Wednesday defended TVK candidate in the just-concluded Dharapuram Assembly bypoll, P Sathyabama, saying a viral video allegedly related to her election expenditure was “chopped, edited, and altered using AI”.
Condemning the alleged personal attacks and body-shaming directed at Sathyabama, Rajmohan characterised the manipulated footage as “ideological violence” against a woman from a marginalised background.
“Calling her ‘Petti Bama’…is that how degradingly you speak of a candidate? Would you have spoken like this about a male candidate? Would you have body-shamed him?” Rajmohan asked.
He claimed that the viral video attributed to her was “chopped, edited, and altered using AI”.
The minister’s statement comes against the backdrop of DMK chief MK Stalin’s recent remarks hitting out at Sathyabama for crossing over to the ruling party side from the AIADMK due to alleged horse-trading.
‘Petti,’ in this political context, broadly hints at somebody accepting illegal inducement to facilitate horse-trading and ‘Bama’ is a shorter version of Sathyabama.
The minister also urged media organisations to verify facts instead of broadcasting “WhatsApp rumours,” saying the state government is actively monitoring and flagging politically motivated deepfakes intended to mislead the public.
The controversy stems from a viral clip in which Sathyabama purportedly claims to have spent Rs 31 crore in previous polls and Rs 16 lakh on recent campaign logistics.
Rajmohan’s statements build on comments made by his cabinet colleague, Minister Aadhav Arjuna, who also dismissed the footage as an artificial intelligence-generated fabrication.
Arjuna questioned the timing of the clip’s circulation, noting it was deliberately released at 10 am on the morning of the polling day (Oct 6, 2026) for the byelection to the Dharapuram and Madurantakam Assembly constituencies.
Terming it a last-minute smear campaign orchestrated by the DMK IT wing to derail the TVK candidate, he asserted that voters were discerning enough to see through such fabrications.
Sathyabama quit her MLA post on May 25, 2026, following the declaration of Assembly election results and later the basic membership of AIADMK, and subsequently joined the TVK and the Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay-led party re-nominated her from the Dharapuram constituency.
Both Sathyabama and Maragatham Kumaravel (she also had quit her MLA post and AIADMK membership and joined TVK, and she was nominated again from Madurantakam Assembly constituency) and the ruling TVK faced the opposition onslaught of allegations of horse-trading. The by-elections to Dharapuram and Madurantakam were held on Oct 6, 2026.
The viral video emerged under such circumstances. PTI JR VGN ROH VGN ADB
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