Chennai: Adding to the list of cases lodged against political leaders following complaints by TVK functionaries over remarks against Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, the Chennai police have registered an FIR against DMK Ward 95 councillor and district women’s wing organiser Sudha Deenadayalan over her speech at a 7 October party event.
In her speech at the DMK Mupperum Vizha, held at Raja Annamalai Mandram, Sudha allegedly referred to Vijay repeatedly as a “dog”, while defending former CM and DMK president M.K. Stalin against purported comments on his appearance. She said Stalin is 74 and a “lion”, while Vijay, 52, would look like a “dead body” or “corpse with cotton wool in the nostrils” if the two stood side by side. She also accused Vijay of winning power through social media reels, failing to fulfil promises, and continuing DMK-era schemes.
A video of Sudha’s speech was circulated widely, which led to uproar and a police complaint by TVK functionary Udhayakumar. Esplanade police station lodged an FIR for use of obscene language, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and spreading rumours likely to cause fear or alarm under relevant BNS sections. Sudha was also summoned for questioning.
Earlier, police had registered cases against Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin over alleged double-meaning remarks seemingly referring to actor Trisha. Cases were also lodged against senior DMK leaders including A. Raja, P.K. Sekar Babu and MLA Vasantham Karthikeyan over allegedly defamatory remarks. In August, a complaint was filed against BJP state president Nainar Nagendran over a jibe allegedly referencing Vijay’s mother.
DMK Deputy General Secretary and MP K. Kanimozhi and Chennai Mayor R. Priya were also present on the stage during the Mupperum Vizha event. The video clips showed the mayor appearing to laugh during parts of the remarks, while Kanimozhi seemed uncomfortable.
TVK leaders, including ministers Aadhav Arjuna and K. Jagatheeswari and MLA Kanimozhi Santhosh, condemned the speech of the DMK councillor and asked why senior leaders present did not stop it. Jagatheeswari issued a statement demanding a public apology from Sudha, Kanimozhi and Mayor Priya, calling the remarks contrary to democratic values and political decency and questioning the leaders’ sense of responsibility for watching and appearing to enjoy them.
Another clip from the event shows Kanimozhi intervening and stating that the Dravidian movement’s standards should not fall. “We should not become what we are based on who our opponents are. Let them speak what they know. That is their standard, and we are from the Dravidian movement. We should remember this and speak,” she is heard saying, while addressing the crowd.
The DMK has framed the controversy as an attempt by TVK to deflect from alleged failures in infrastructure and flood management in Chennai ahead of and during the Northeast monsoon. Recent rains have brought flooding and waterlogging issues back into focus, with both sides trading blame over past projects and current response.
DMK leaders also released a clip from the same event in which former minister P.K. Sekar Babu is also shown questioning the remarks on stage. The DMK women’s wing accused TVK of distorting the truth, spreading fake narratives and reels to create a false image, and of trying to divert attention from its own governance record. It urged TVK leaders to introspect on their side’s language and criticised the ruling party’s handling of women’s political roles.
“Before finding fault with others’ speech, look back once at the speeches your ministers and leaders make on every stage and the words they use. Do some self-introspection on what is happening on your side as well. Claiming to bring women to the forefront in politics, is your politics to reduce women leaders to mere paid influencer accounts?” DMK women’s wing wrote on X.
Earlier Tuesday, Naam Tamilar Katchi’s (NTK’s) Dharapuram assembly bye-election candidate and state women’s wing coordinator M Karthika was arrested along with her husband from their residence in Coimbatore in connection with cases registered over alleged campaign violations during the 6 October by-election, won by TVK’s P Sathyabama.
The alleged violations included conducting campaign activities along the route of CM Vijay’s roadshow while he was campaigning for TVK, and staging a protest outside a police station. Karthika and several NTK cadres were detained on 4 October during the final day of campaigning near the CM’s roadshow, but were released the same evening.
AIADMK and DMK have strongly condemned the arrest of Karthika, calling it an attempt to suppress political dissent and intimidate candidates from other parties. They argued that such action against a woman candidate and her family during an election campaign raised serious questions about the impartiality of the police and the ruling TVK government’s commitment to free and fair electoral processes.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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