CM Vijay, Udhayanidhi spar on social media

Chennai: Hours after the assembly session was adjourned sine die, chief minister C Joseph Vijay and former deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin were involved in a war of words on social media.While Vijay mocked DMK for not getting the majority in 2006, Udhayanidhi responded, saying that DMK was not involved in a post-poll alliance or horse trading despite not having enough MLAs back then.Vijay issued a statement on X in response to the remarks made by Udhayanidhi in the assembly earlier in the day that TVK lacked people's support as it does not have majority. Vijay said DMK was repeating "old, stale and sour arguments" by claiming TVK lacked public support. "DMK will never understand reality," he said. Vijay said TVK secured 34.92% vote share while contesting alone now, against DMK's standalone vote share of 24.19%. Referring to the 2006 election when DMK had only 96 MLAs and formed minority govt with support of allies, Vijay made a sarcastic remark that ‘DMK won all 234 seats with 100% votes from people.' "People of Tamil Nadu must have smirked recalling the single majority govt formed by DMK in 2006,'' he said. Udhayanidhi hit back at Vijay, saying the party did not attempt to form a post-poll alliance or indulge in "horse-trading" to capture power even when it did not have majority, unlike TVK.Udhayanidhi said Vijay became chief minister with the support of parties and votes that were "rejected" by the people. Drawing a comparison with the 2006 DMK regime, he said that govt was formed with the support of alliance partners and not by "buying MLAs, engineering defections or splitting parties".DMK accepted the people's verdict and chose to sit in the opposition benches, he said. "We did not visit Lok Bhavan everyday out of desperation for power," he said.He said DMK may have lost the election, but forcing TVK to continue the Dravidian model welfare schemes itself was "a victory for the opposition."