Tamil Nadu: Smriti Irani attacks DMK over Sanatan Dharma, mocks Congress

Union Minister Smriti Irani hit the Lok Sabha election campaign trail in Tamil Nadu’s North Chennai on Saturday and lashed out at the DMK leaders’ alleged anti-Sanatana Dharma remarks.

“Today, I stand in a state that is renowned for its spiritual power, its saints, and its culture, and that is why the nation is outraged when the DMK leaders attacked Sanatana Dharma,” Irani said.

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The BJP leader, who is also the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, was campaigning to support North Chennai BJP candidate Paul Kanagaraj.

The campaign kicked off at Othavadai Street in Nammalwarpet Market in Chennai, and Irani attacked the opposition bloc INDIA alliance.

Today, the Congress party says it wants to protect democracy. My question to the Congress party is how it will protect democracy when it is with the DMK,” Irani said.

• Silence is strength in Sanatanam amidst provocation, says Nirmala Sitharaman

She also asked how the Congress party and the INDIA alliance, which takes the support of terrorist organisations’ political leadership, could protect democracy in the country.”

PFI support

The Congress today to fight election even in a state like Kerala takes the support of banned terrorist organisations like the PFI’s political leadership, “ Irani said.

“And I saw that in Wayanad, the INDI alliance is fighting, but when they meet in Delhi, they hug each other. And today I am in Tamil Nadu; I can only say, In Delhi, they are hugging; in Kerala, they are begging; and in Tamil Nadu, they are thugging.”

The first phase of voting for all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the only constituency in Puducherry will be held on April 19.

During polling for the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats.

The DMK-led alliance secured a landslide victory by winning 38 out of 39 seats. The Congress, which was also part of the alliance, won 8 seats out of the nine contested seats.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, won only one seat.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Indian National Congress candidate V Vaithilingam won the only seat in the Puducherry Parliamentary Constituency.

The polling will be conducted in seven phases across the country from April 19 to June 1, and the votes will be counted on June 4.

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