DMDK’s Sudhish posts cartoon of ‘Karunanidhi’, triggers row

A massive political row erupted over a cartoon portraying several politicos including late DMK patriarch Kalaignar Karunanidhi falling at the feet of actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth.

 The cartoon was posted by DMDK deputy general secretary and Vijayakanth’s son-in-law L.K. Sudhish. The character in the cartoon with a yellow shawl around the shoulders resembled late DMK supremo Karunanidhi.

This led to Sudhish being under massive criticism by the leaders from DMK. The cartoon had been first posted on his Facebook in 2016. Sudhish had to remove the cartoon immediately even as verbal attacks against him got intensified.

Several DMK Leaders and cadres including DMK MP Senthil Kumar demanded Sudhish to remove the tweet and apologise.

Offering explanation after removing the post, Sudhish said, ”I only posted the cartoon published by DinaMalar newspaper in 2016. I posted the cartoon in social media so that the people of Tamil Nadu can understand the difference of approach in the cartoon published by them back then and the cartoon posted by them now.”

“Since it was wrongly understood I immediately removed the post,” he said. The Tamil Daily, in its Thursday’s edition, had published a cartoon with the caption “Biggest auction” and DMDK Treasurer and Vijayakanth’s wife Premalatha auctioning Vijayakanth by holding a bell in her hand and saying “auction for the 2021 elections starts”.

In the cartoon there are two chairs with AIADMK party symbol and DMK party symbol, hinting at “auctioning of DMDK’s support to Dravidian parties for a price”.

On Vijayakanth’s birthday in August this year, Premalatha said that the DMDK cadres wanted Vijayakanth to be the “king” in the next election and might contest the elections alone in the 2021 elections if the cadres expressed their willingness.

In 2016, Vijayakanth kept both Dravidian parties guessing till the very last minute and joined the People Welfare Front and faced elections with MDMK, VCK and Left parties.