Anti-Hindu Comments, Criticism From Within And A Stronger BJP — Why DMK Dropped Dharmapuri MP Senthilkumar

In its list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has dropped its Dharmapuri MP S Senthilkumar.

Senthilkumar is no stranger to controversy. He has been in the news for the last couple of years for his remarks that were seen as anti-Hindu.

He once referred to Hindi-speaking states as 'gaumutra states' while speaking in Parliament about the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) victory in the assembly polls held in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. He had to tender an apology for his remarks later.

During the bhoomi puja of a government building in September 2022, he created a ruckus by kicking bricks smeared with vermilion and turmeric for the ceremony.

Later, in an interview, he said that people in north India worship only Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha while in the south they also worship Muruga (Karthikeya), and said he doesn’t know if family planning had happened there.

While he was severely criticised by the opposition for his remarks, he has also faced criticism from within the party.

According to a report by Dinamalar, Shanmugam, the DMK union secretary for Nallampali East, publicly expressed his dissatisfaction and Thadangam Subramani, a district secretary of the DMK, stopped inviting him for functions. 

While it is not known if the decision of the DMK was precisely due to the controversies Senthilkumar was courting and the opposition from within the party, both these factors would have played on the minds of the party leadership. The party could have felt that a ticket for Senthilkumar would give the BJP a stick to beat it with.

It has a better social media presence that could take the messaging effectively and has more support on the ground, a fact that been backed by a number of opinion polls predicting a double digit vote share for the party.

As an alliance partner, if the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), (which holds significant influence in the region due to the substantial Vanniyar community population), also amplifies the anti-Hindu comments of Senthilkumar, it will resonate with more people than before.

Further, in the assembly elections in 2021, which was after Senthilkumar became the MP, the DMK failed to win even a single assembly segment in the Dharmapuri Lok Sabha constituency. Of the six assembly constituencies, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the PMK, which were then together under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) umbrella, won 3 seats each.

However, the PMK, which is likely to contest from Dharmapuri, does have a reasonable chance of winning the seat even without the presence of the AIADMK in the NDA camp, especially if it can consolidate votes from the Vanniyar community and gain from the votes brought in by a stronger BJP.

According to a report by The Hindu, the Vanniyar population in Dharmapuri district is 41 per cent.

And it is not as if it hasn't happened before.

In 2014, PMK's Anbumani Ramadoss, in alliance with a relatively weaker BJP, won the seat with around 42 per cent vote share. While the AIADMK finished second with around 35 per cent vote share, the DMK secured around 16 per cent to finish third.