NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin triggered a political uproar after he said that the DMK “neither fears the Prime Minister nor his father.”While addressing a DMK Youth Wing event in Coimbatore, Udhayanidhi said, “Whenever Modi appears on television, people get frightened about what he is going to announce. Demonetisation and the Corona (lockdown) announcements by Modi made people fearful. But if Stalin appears on TV, people are happy about the new announcement schemes. We’ll never leave our rights for the welfare of Tamil Nadu. We’ll not fear PM Modi, not even if the father of PM Modi comes.”The remarks attracted a strong reaction from Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing its leaders of repeatedly making personal attacks against the Prime Minister and his family.BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged that Udhayanidhi Stalin had previously made controversial remarks against the Hindu community and was now targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s late father.“Congress went shirtless, topless, and characterless in the way it protested at the AI Summit. Actually, it was not a protest; it was a disruption. And now the DMK, its ally, has gone senseless, ethicless, and moralless. Udhayanidhi Stalin, who has given death threats to Hindus and called for the genocide of Hindus, is now targeting the Prime Minister’s late father,” Poonawalla said.“Imagine, during the Bihar elections, the INDIA Alliance targeted and abused his mother. They have used more than 150 abusive words, especially against his mother and father, particularly because he comes from the OBC community,” he added.“They have abused his family and his background. They have mocked him for being a chaiwala. They have said, “Modi, teri kabar khudegi,” and threatened that he would die or be killed, using violent language like “lathi dande.” Now, Udhayanidhi Stalin, who has said that he wants to exterminate Hindus and eradicate Sanatan, and for which the High Court has come down heavily on him, has delivered such hate speech. And now he is abusing the Prime Minister’s late father. This shows the journey from shirtless to shameless, from characterless to senseless. This is the directionless INDIA Alliance. They talk about the Constitution, but they are nothing more than an ‘abuse ki dukaan’,” Poonawalla added.Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in the first half of 2026, where the MK Stalin-led alliance will look to project the ‘Dravidian Model 2.0’ for the win against the BJP-AIADMK alliance.Actor-turned-politician Vijay’s entry with his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) is expected to turn the Tamil Nadu polls into a three-way contest. In the 2021 polls, the DMK won 133 seats in the 2021 assembly polls.Congress won 18, PMK won five, VCK won four, and others, including independents, won eight seats. The Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), led by DMK, which consisted of Congress, won 159 seats collectively.While the NDA won 75 seats, the AIADMK emerged as the largest party in the alliance with 66 seats.
