AMMK General Secretary T. T. V. Dhinakaran launched a sharp attack on the TVK government, accusing it of relying on social media optics rather than governance and alleging that the ruling party was engineering defections from opposition ranks.
Speaking to reporters, Dhinakaran mocked the role of social media in TVK’s electoral success and questioned whether governance could be sustained through online publicity.
“They came to power today by posting Instagram reels. I thought they were planning to continue governing through Instagram reels as well. Now they are claiming that under their government, even bills can be paid through GPay. That’s not governance. To use Vijay’s own style of dialogue from Instagram, they need to control their excitement.”
Dhinakaran further took a swipe at the TVK government’s social media-centric approach to governance, warning against what he described as attempts to substitute publicity for performance.
“If you think you can continue in power and deceive the people just by posting Reels on Instagram, much like the movie Imsai Arasan 23rd Pulikesi – please don’t drive us to a point where, in the future, your administration is mocked as the reign of ‘Insta Arasan 24th Pulikecei.’ That is exactly what I am saying. Take six months; but if you try to deceive the public by claiming you will fulfill election promises that are actually impossible to deliver, then we will have to raise our voices against you.”
He said the government should be judged on its ability to deliver on its promises rather than on social media campaigns and publicity efforts.
Dhinakaran said the government should function responsibly, noting that while TVK emerged as the single largest party, it had not received an overwhelming mandate from voters.
“This government must function properly. Even though the people did not give you an absolute majority, you emerged as the single largest party and won 108 constituencies.”
He also accused the ruling party of aggressively pursuing opposition legislators and attempting to manufacture support through political manoeuvring.
“Some people were picked off. For others, they practically went door to door pleading and persuading them to join. AIADMK was called a corrupt party, but now when 25 MLAs from that same party come looking to support you, are we supposed to believe they suddenly became saints? Everyone knows who spoke to whom and what was discussed. The only thing left was to line up those 25 MLAs in the middle of the road.”
Referring to MLAs who resigned and later joined the ruling side, Dhinakaran dismissed claims that constituencies could only receive development if represented by ruling-party legislators.
“Now four of them have resigned and gone there, saying that only if they become MLAs of the ruling party can they bring development to their constituencies. We can only laugh at such stories. The person saying this himself spent the last five years as an opposition MLA.”
He further alleged that personal and business interests were behind some political defections.
“Everyone knows why he wanted to join the ruling party. He has business interests that could be affected. That’s no secret.”
In one of his strongest remarks, Dhinakaran claimed Tamil Nadu politics had evolved beyond traditional “horse-trading.”
“Today in Tamil Nadu, we’ve gone beyond horse-trading and even donkey-trading. A new phenomenon called ‘crow-trading’ has emerged. This is something entirely new in Tamil Nadu politics, and the TVK government and the functioning of that party are responsible for it.”
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