Tamil Nadu polls: BJP candidate Annamalai warns DMK cadres; Kanimozhi retorts, says dare you to touch them

The former IPS officer had said that he would have broken the bones of DMK leader Senthil Balaji, but is not ready to take the violent route now as he has entered politics.

BJP’s candidate from the Aravakurichi constituency Annamalai (left) and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

The political mercury is rising in Tamil Nadu with former IPS officer K Annamalai, who is making his poll debut as BJP’s candidate for the Aravakurichi constituency, getting into a war of words with DMK MP Kanimozhi.

Annamalai had issued a warning to DMK cadres who plan to incite violence to which the DMK MP had dared him to touch a DMK cadre and said that no one can threaten them as she will always be standing for her party’s workers.

The tussle started when Annamalai, while campaigning at Aravakurichi, said, “Publish in papers that are biased towards your party that Annamalai will lose in this election. Why do you engage in personal attacks? Why do you attack Prime Minister Modi? What wrong has he done? Is he corrupt? I am proud to say I am a disciple of Prime Minister Modi. If you have a problem with it, then let it be. Will you defeat me in this election by engaging in malpractices? Do it. I am not the person to get frightened by these acts. I promise to the people of the constituency that whatever happens, Annamalai will stay here.”

Former IPS officer K Annamalai who is making his poll debut as BJP’s candidate for Aravakurichi constituency issues warning to DMK cadres who attempt to incite violence, says he believes in Ahimsa and doesn’t want to show his Karnataka face here. #TamilNaduElections2021 pic.twitter.com/52Y56F01Ts

— Janardhan Koushik (@koushiktweets) April 1, 2021

Annamalai also alleged that BJP cadres were attacked by DMK and several FIRs have also been filed related to this. He added that even on the day when DMK MP Kanimozhi came to the constituency for campaigning, two of their party men were beaten up.

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Reacting to these incidents, he said, “I will break the bones of Senthil Balaji but I am not ready to take the violent route. I am following Ahimsa and conducting these protests in politics. I have another face, the Karnataka face, which I don’t want to unveil here. I don’t care if you take the video and submit it to EC. I am fighting this battle all alone for the welfare of the constituency.”

Replying to these comments, DMK women’s wing president Kanimozhi, while campaigning for their candidate Thanga Tamilselvan in Theni, said her party has seen many people like Annamalai and asked the BJP not to show their gimmicks in Tamil Nadu.

“Annamalai has said he doesn’t want to unveil his Karnataka face here. He has threatened to beat Senthil Balaji. I dare you to touch a DMK cadre. No one can threaten us. If you do it, we will stand up against you and you won’t be able to bear that,” she added.

As per the latest reports, based on the complaint by the DMK, a case has been registered against Annamalai at the Aravakurichi police station.

Janardhan Koushik

Janardhan Koushik is Deputy Copy Editor of indianexpress.com. He is a New Media journalist with over five years of reporting experience in the industry. He has a keen interest in politics, sports, films, and other civic issues. Janardhan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication from SRM Arts and Science College and a PG Diploma in New Media from Asian College of Journalism, one of the top ranked journalism schools in India. He started his career with India Today group as a sub-editor as part of the sports team in 2016. He has also a wide experience as a script-writer having worked for short-films, pilot films as well as a radio jockey cum show producer while contributing for an online Tamil FM. As a multilingual journalist, he actively tracks the latest development in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry utiling his well-established networks to contribute significantly to breaking news stories. He has also worked as a sports analyst for Star Sports. ... Read More

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