A Senthil Balaji anthem?
To offset the absence of a tall leader like V Senthil Balaji during election campaign in the Kongu region, DMK supporters recently released a 5.35-minute-long video song about him. Other than waxing lyrical about the former minister, the song also claimed that Balaji would soon return from jail and regain all the lost glory. The song that has been widely circulated, meanwhile, ruffled a few feathers among senior party leaders. They opined that praising an imprisoned leader to the skies would have an adverse effect on the Rising Sun’s poll prospects.
Yet, Bruce is an honourable man…
Congress functionaries of Nanguneri union in Tirunelveli district recently issued a statement alleging that Nanguneri Congress MLA Ruby Manoharan was not actively campaigning for the party’s Tirunelveli Lok Sabha candidate C Robert Bruce. Without further ado, Manoharan held a public meeting supposedly to bury the hatchet and praise Bruce. “All of Bruce’s rivals in the election are filthy rich. If they offer you (the voters) money, take it. But, our Bruce is a poor man. He is so poor that he won’t even buy a tea for the people who accompany him for campaigning. We are the ones buying him tea now,” he said. The people, who had lent him their ears, were confused as to whether Manoharan was praising Bruce or ridiculing him. Incidentally, Bruce had claimed that his family assets were worth Rs 9.2 crore in his poll affidavit.
(Contributed by Thinakaran Rajamani and S Kumaresan; compiled by Alen Moni Mathews)