TVK takes the Dharapuram row to the EC: Stalin faces complaint over alleged remarks against Sathyabama

CHENNAI: The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government has decided to take its bitter bypoll battle with the DMK to the Election Commission of India, announcing on Saturday that it will lodge a formal complaint over alleged derogatory remarks by DMK president M.K. Stalin against its Dharapuram candidate. Tamil Nadu Energy and Law Minister C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar told reporters in Coimbatore that Stalin had made what he called body-shaming remarks about P. Sathyabama while campaigning in Dharapuram on Friday for the DMK's candidate, S. Suganya. Sathyabama, a Scheduled Caste woman and former AIADMK legislator, is the TVK's candidate for the seat, which goes to the polls on October 6 along with Madurantakam. Kumar said the remarks were condemnable and accused the DMK leadership of resorting to personal attacks out of desperation. He said the complaint would specifically cite language allegedly derogatory toward women candidates, and claimed that Stalin and Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin had both used offensive language during the campaign. The announcement escalates a row that erupted on Friday, when TVK ministers K.A. Sengottaiyan and Arun Raj demanded a public apology from Stalin, alleging that he had referred to derogatory nicknames used against Sathyabama. In posts on X, Sengottaiyan questioned whether the remarks counted as election campaigning or as an attempt to ridicule a woman candidate, while Arun Raj described them as an attack on her dignity. No transcript of Stalin's Dharapuram speech has been made public, and the exact wording remains unclear. The DMK has not publicly responded to the allegations. The timing is pointed. Campaigning for the two bypolls ends on Sunday, and the TVK — a three-month-old government facing its first electoral test — has spent the week firefighting on multiple fronts: an alliance crisis with the VCK over the PMK's possible entry, and now a formal poll-panel complaint that keeps the Dharapuram campaign in the headlines through the final hours.