Amid Rumours Of PM Modi Contesting From Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram in 2024, DMK MP S Senthilkumar Challenges Him To Contest From Dharmapuri

Dharmapuri Lok Sabha MP S Senthilkumar, who is from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) said on Wednesday (4 January) that he welcomes Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Tamil Nadu. This comes amidst rumours of Modi contesting from Ramanathapuram.

Senthilkumar said that he was confident that the candidate of the DMK’s alliance partner Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) would be able to defeat Modi. The incumbent MP from Ramanathapuram, Kani K Navas belongs to the IUML.

He said that if Modi does not contest from Ramanathapuram, he was welcome to contest from Dharmapuri and the DMK would definitely defeat him hands down.

He added that as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai, portrays himself as a 'state leader', he too was welcome to contest from Dharmapuri but he would lose his deposit.

Further, he said that the BJP does not have any space in Tamil Nadu and the defeat of the Prime Minister from a Tamil Nadu seat will be worn by him as a badge of honour.

Senthilkumar’s challenge comes after Annamalai’s rally few days ago in Dharmapuri, in which he said that the Dharmapuri MP (Senthilkumar) is ‘total waste.’

Annamalai also recalled an incident in which Senthilkumar had created a ruckus during the bhoomi puja of a government building by kicking the bricks prepared for the ceremony by smearing vermilion and turmeric paste. He had then said that the DMK government follows the Dravidian model under which it was wrong to conduct a ceremony following the customs of one religion.

The Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency is home to the Rameswaram jyotirlinga and is one of the holy sites of Hindus. For many, a visit to Kashi (Prime Minister Modi's constituency) is incomplete without a visit to Rameswaram.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) were allies, the IUML candidate Kani K Navas won with 44 per cent votes. IUML was part of the DMK-led alliance.

BJP’s Nainar Nagendran came second with 32.2 per cent votes and the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) candidate received 13 per cent votes. Had the AMMK not broken away from the AIADMK, the BJP could have won the seat as the combined vote share would have been 45.2 per cent.