Why do DMK candidates want Modi to campaign in their constituencies?

On Friday, hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was all set to campaign for the NDA alliance in Madurai, DMK candidates contesting across the state took to Twitter to mocking him. DMK candidates stormed Twitter as they tagged Modi, requesting him to campaign in their constituencies, saying that it would help them widen their victory margins.

As the Income Tax Department sleuths reached the places of MK Stalin’s daughter, Senthamarai Sabareesan, and other locations belonging to the DMK first family, the Twitter handles of all its candidates took to taunting Modi by welcoming him to their respective constituencies. It was a sarcastic dig at the prime minister by the DMK candidates, meaning that they will win if he campaigns for the AIADMK-BJP candidates. It all began on March 30, hours after Modi campaigned at Dharapuram. DMK’s Thondamuthur candidate Karthikeya Sivasenapathy took to Twitter to request Modi, saying if Modi campaigns in Thondamuthur, he can win by a huge margin against minister S.P. Velumani. “Dear Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, please campaign for Mr SP Velumani, local administration minister. I am the DMK candidate against him and it will be very useful for me if you support him,” Sivasenapathy wrote in his Twitter page.

Most of the DMK candidates tweeted the same, verbatim, and it looked like a conscious jibe against the BJP. In a state where the anti-BJP and anti-Modi sentiments are deep-rooted and the ‘Go back Modi’ campaigns have always hit the air, “welcoming” Modi for campaigning made Tamil Twitterati have a hearty laugh. Recently, in one of the election rallies, DMK chief M.K. Stalin even said that his party’s support base increases if Modi comes down to Tamil Nadu to campaign.

Earlier, when the IT raids began, Stalin took a dig at Modi, while speaking at Jayankondam. “I would like to remind Modi that this is DMK and I am Kalaignar’s (M. Karunanidhi) son. I will not be cowed down by these intimidations. I faced MISA during Emergency,” Stalin said as he campaigned. More than this, one of his short videos put out to his cadres and people of the state, titled vendrey therruvom (we will definitely win), Stalin said the DMK was fighting the fascist forces. “The fight is between the people of Tamil Nadu and the fascist forces.”

At a time when the opinion polls are predicting a victory for the DMK-led UPA in Tamil Nadu, the tweets to Prime Minister Modi by its candidates, the Income Tax raids and Stalin’s statements have only helped the DMK step up its campaign.