COIMBATORE: DMK deputy general secretary and MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi on Sunday took a swipe at Chief Minister and TVK president C Joseph Vijay, asking him to change the script.

"If you cannot change it, at least change the person writing it,” she said, referring to his repeated references to the DMK as an “evil force” and his party as a “pure force,” adding that people had grown tired of hearing the same dialogue.

Campaigning for DMK candidate Suganya in the Dharapuram bypoll, Kanimozhi said the TVK government’s “drama and reels” would not last long and accused it of failing on law and order, governance and its election promises.

Taking a dig at Vijay’s frequent references to the DMK, she said, “He spoke for 30 minutes in Maduranthakam. Mentioned DMK 40 times. He will come here too and seek votes in the name of the DMK.”

Kanimozhi also mocked Vijay for referring to DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin as “sweet uncle”. “Vijay is now our relative because he calls our leader Thalapathy ‘sweet uncle’. From now on, I will call him dear younger brother,” she said.

Attacking the TVK government over rising crime and law and order, Kanimozhi claimed that more than 200 murders, over 300 sexual offences and eight custodial deaths had occurred under the government. “You may have voted for Vijay thinking he would save you as he does in cinema. But is this the ‘pure force’?” she asked.

She also alleged that the government had failed to act against a Cabinet minister despite a complaint by a woman lawyer from the same party, who alleged that she was asked to pay money in connection with an appointment as a government prosecutor. Instead, action was taken against the woman, she claimed.

Kanimozhi also questioned the government over an alleged sexual assault of a child on a school campus in Chennai, accusing it of trying to cover up the incident. Referring to Vijay’s appeal to kids to insist at home and secure votes for him, she asked what the government had done for his “Nanbas and Nanbis”.

She also alleged that DMK leaders were being subjected to repeated searches out of political vendetta. “Every week, searches are being conducted at the houses of our leaders,” she said.

The DMK leader criticised the government over unfulfilled election promises and raised issues relating to power cuts, price rise, farmers’ water problems, unemployment assistance and financial support for women.

On power cuts, she referred to an earlier remark by Stalin that the contest was between “power cuts and sickle cuts”. “They say the power cuts are due to the absence of rain and wind and that someone is pulling out the fuse. For four months, don’t they even have the ability to find out who is responsible?” she asked.

Kanimozhi also took a dig at Vijay over his foreign travel, saying he had claimed he went to London to attract industrial investment after visiting a race. “He could have gone to Delhi for the company in Noida,” she said.

She also criticised the reported expenditure on a new office. “You ask people not to make sweets with ghee from someone else’s house, but spend Rs 6 crore to Rs 7 crore on a new office. I don’t know which pandit told him this. Is brother Vijay making kara boondi?” she asked.

On the Dharapuram bypoll, Kanimozhi accused the TVK of engineering the situation to increase its strength in the Assembly after Sathyabama, who had contested and won as an AIADMK candidate, joined the TVK.

“The TVK is projecting Sathyabama differently after previously describing her as a spent force while she was in the AIADMK. Now, after she has joined the TVK, she has become sister Sathyabama,” she said.

Defending the DMK against Vijay’s allegation that it was aligned with the BJP in the State, Kanimozhi cited the party’s opposition to several Union government decisions.

Referring to an Assembly speech by VCK leader Vanni Arasu, she alleged that remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been removed from the Assembly records.