Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday took a swipe at CM Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, calling it a "Breaking Bad party" after one of the party's functionaries was arrested in a methamphetamine seizure case.
His remarks come after a party functionary was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in connection with a methamphetamine seizure in Nagapattinam.
In a post on X, Stalin said, "TVK is not just a 'Bad Party'-it is a 'Breaking Bad' party."
The DRI's Tiruchy zone arrested two persons, including N Boopalan (42), an advocate and TVK Nagapattinam district executive committee member, and seized 100 kg of methamphetamine in Nagapattinam on Friday. The contraband was allegedly intended to be smuggled to Sri Lanka and distributed through a network of associates.
Boopalan, a resident of ChinthamMain Road near Velankanni, had also served as the election in-charge for the Kilvelur Assembly constituency. Officials identified the second arrested person as J Sughan alias Suganathan (27), a resident of Prathaparamanallur. His brother, J Parthiban (29), and D Sathish (30), both from the same locality, were detained for inquiry.
Reacting to the arrest, Stalin alleged that the incident raised questions about the presence of a drug network within the TVK and called for a thorough investigation into the case.
"It appears that while the Chief Minister has been lecturing from every stage about the 'eradication' (ozhippu) of drugs, this individual misunderstood the term as 'concealment' (olippu)-leading him to hide 135 kilograms of the narcotic substance methamphetamine. He was caught red-handed while at the peak of his operations as a carrier," Stalin wrote.
He further asked, "Was the TVK leader preaching to the public while harbouring a major drug mafia within his own party?"
Stalin said authorities must identify everyone involved and dismantle the entire network, given the quantity of narcotics seized in the raid.
"Given that such a massive quantity of narcotics was seized in a single raid, authorities must uncover everyone else involved and dismantle the entire network," he said.
Taking another dig at the ruling party, Stalin said the party should focus on identifying alleged drug-related elements within its ranks rather than conducting a "census of Communists".
"Instead of using tahsildars (revenue officials) to conduct a census of Communists, the party should first conduct a census to see how many 'Leo Das' or 'Powder Sarath' types are lurking within the ranks of the TVK across every district," he said.
Stalin added that the party had earned the reputation of a "'Bad Party'" within five months of its inception and had now received a "'promotion' to become a 'Breaking Bad' party."
He also took a sarcastic swipe at the Chief Minister, saying, "One hopes the Chief Minister doesn't come up with another 'punch dialogue' for this situation-something like, 'Are you scared? It's only going to get more terrifying from here!'"