Chennai: Hours after the assembly session was adjourned sine die, chief minister C Joseph Vijay and former deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin were involved in a war of words on social media. While Vijay mocked DMK for not securing a majority in 2006, Udhayanidhi responded, saying that DMK did not engage in post-poll alliances or horse trading despite lacking enough MLAs at that time.
Vijay issued a statement on X in response to remarks made by Udhayanidhi in the assembly earlier that TVK lacked people's support as it does not have a majority. Vijay said DMK was repeating "old, stale and sour arguments" by claiming TVK lacked public support. "DMK will never understand reality," he said. Vijay noted that TVK secured a 34.92% vote share while contesting alone, compared to DMK's standalone vote share of 24.19%. Referring to the 2006 election when DMK had only 96 MLAs and formed a minority government with allies, Vijay made a sarcastic remark: "DMK won all 234 seats with 100% votes from people." He added, "People of Tamil Nadu must have smirked recalling the single majority government formed by DMK in 2006."
Udhayanidhi hit back at Vijay, stating that the party did not attempt to form a post-poll alliance or indulge in "horse-trading" to capture power even when it lacked a majority, unlike TVK. Udhayanidhi said Vijay became chief minister with the support of parties and votes that were "rejected" by the people. Drawing a comparison with the 2006 DMK regime, he said that government was formed with the support of alliance partners and not by "buying MLAs, engineering defections or splitting parties."
DMK accepted the people's verdict and chose to sit in the opposition benches, he said. "We did not visit Lok Bhavan every day out of desperation for power." He added that DMK may have lost the election, but forcing TVK to continue the Dravidian model welfare schemes itself was "a victory for the opposition."
