CHENNAI: Conceding defeat after a bad day at the polls usually warrants a lengthy face-saving statement. But after decades of using the tried-and-perfected rigmarole, even seasoned politicians like the DMK patriarch are taking a page out of Narendra Modi’s book. M Karunanidhi’s IT team quickly used his twitter handle (@kalaignar89) to tweet the link to his statement at 11 am, well before it’s hardcopy did the rounds.
While NaMo himself (and his well-formed media team) leveraged social media to the hilt, it appears as if the DMK is slowly getting the hang of it. Even their heir apparent M K Stalin quickly tweet-congratulated Narendra Modi on his victory and added his two cents to their whitewash: “DMK accepts the people’s judgement wholeheartedly. We will continue to service the people and society, defeat will not deter us from our vision,” he tweeted.
Though this isn’t anywhere close to Shashi Tharoor’s live-tweeting reactions to his rocky road victory over the BJP, this is certainly an improvement for the Kazhagam. It also goes without saying that it’s easier for people like Karunanidhi, Stalin and Khusbu to keep tweeting because they didn’t end up losing this election. People like T K S Elangovan, who are otherwise twitter-savvy, chose to stay off the twitterverse.
Alagiri’s ouster from the DMK may be a forgotten thing for the party, but his son Dhayanidhi Alagiri’s tweets praising Modi’s victory and calling the “DMK’s embarassing performance” something that was “expected”, was seen as a betrayal by partymen. A lot of flak may have gone back and forth had it not been for the fact that most DMK twitter accounts and users stayed silent through Friday.
Rajinikanth, who normally stays away from reacting to election results, used the microblogging site to send his congratulations out. “Hearty congratulations dear Narendra Modi ji on your historic win,” he said to the PM-in-waiting, and to Jayalalithaa, “My congratulations to TN CM J Jayalalithaa on her landslide victory”.