The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday lodged a complaint to the Election Commission against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and the party chief MK Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin on his comments on the death of former Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, ANI reported.
The party has asked the poll body to disqualify Udhayanidhi Stalin’s candidature. The party has also demanded that he be delisted from the DMK’s list of star campaigners and debarred from campaigning ahead of the elections on April 6.
At an election rally on Wednesday, Stalin claimed that Swaraj and Jaitley died as they could not handle the pressure that Prime Minister Narendra Modi put on them, The News Minute reported. He made the comment while targeting Modi’s remark that the DMK scion’s entry into politics had come at the cost of senior leaders of the party. The DMK leader, who is contesting the Chepauk-Triplicane constituency for the first time in the upcoming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, accused Modi himself of sidelining senior leaders of the BJP.
“People were saying [Lal Krishna] Advani who took the Rath Yatra will become the next prime minister but Modi sidelined him,” Udhayanidhi Stalin said, according to The News Minute. “Next Murali Manohar Joshi, [then] there was Yashwant Sinha...he was unable to bear the torture [and] left the party. Sushma Swaraj could not handle the pressure and she died. Arun Jaitley also could not handle the pressure and torture and he died. PM [Modi] also sidelined Venkaiah Naidu.”
Soon after his comments came to light, Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri Swaraj tweeted asking the DMK leader not to involve the former foreign minister in election campaigning.
“Please do not use my Mother’s memory for your poll propaganda!” she tweeted. “Your statements are false! PM Narendra Modi ji bestowed utmost respect and honour on my mother.”
Later, Jaitley’s daughter Sonali Jaitley Bakhshi also tweeted that the former finance minister and Modi shared a “special bond”.
“I know there is election pressure but I won’t stay silent when you lie and disrespect my father’s memory,” she tweeted, addressing Udhayanidhi Stalin.
On Thursday, the poll body had barred DMK leader and former Union minister A Raja from campaigning for 48 hours over his objectionable remarks against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and his mother.
Notably, Swaraj had died at the age of 67 on August 6, 2019. Weeks later Jaitley passed away on August 24, at the age of 66. Both the leaders had opted out of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections due to health reasons.
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