With barely over a year left for the VK Sasikala's jail sentence in the Parappana Agrahara jail to end, her brother V Dhivaharan has made a startling statement. Speaking at a wedding on Thursday, Dhivaharan hailed DMK chief MK Stalin as the state's next Chief Minister and claimed that he will uphold Dravidian principles.
The statement was made when he was sharing a dias with the DMK Chief during the wedding of a family member of Thanjavur DMK MP S Palanimanickam.
"Stalin is the Leader of Opposition today and will be the Chief Minister tomorrow," said Dhivaharan. "The situation in Tamil Nadu is bad and people here are being treated like second-class citizens. Even a man from Karnataka (referring to actor Rajinikanth) is now brave enough to speak against Periyar. This situation has come because Dravidian leaders have passed away, one after the other. Tamil and Tamil Nadu are both important to us. Stalin is the only leader who can protect them and we should support him," he added.
He however did go on to criticise the DMK and stated that had its leaders remained vigilant, the party could have secured close to 85% of the seats.
Responding to this, Stalin who spoke next, claimed that the party would have won 90% of the seats if elections were conducted in a free and fair manner. He also pointed out that BJP's T Arasukumar, who had praised him at a similar event at a wedding, had switched to the DMK after this speech. He maintained that he was not sure where Dhivaharan was headed next.
And while this has led to speculation over whether Dhivaharan will jump ship ahead of his sister's release, AIADMK which ousted the family from the party, used this as an opportunity to point out why they removed Sasikala.
"As far as that family is concerned, they always have a link with DMK. Be it Dhivaharan, Dhinakaran or Sasikala, they have a soft corner for DMK," said D Jayakumar, AIADMK Minister to the media after Dhivaharan's statement.
However Dhivaharan's son Jeyanandh, in a statement on Facebook about the event said, "It is uncultured to rake up a 30-year-old feud at a marriage event. Even if it is a leader who you oppose politically, if they have invited you it is Tamil culture to honour them. That is all that has happened. Nothing has changed because of this event. We will not support the DMK."