Dayanidhi Maran calls Annamalai ‘joker’ and says he won’t take his words back

DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday said Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai is a joker and he will not take his words about Annamalai back. Annamalai was once against NEET, now he supports it; once he said he did not know Hindi and now he speaks fluent Hindi; he behaved like a chameleon, Dayanidhi Maran said after his ‘joker’ remark on national television became a major controversy and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to it in his public rally. “I stand by my words, He is a joker. We need people like him. He is a good entertainer. Please Annamalai, continue,” Dayanidhi Maran said.
“DMK is drowning in its pride in power. When a big DMK leader was asked about our youth leader Annamalai, he was so blinded by pride that he asked, ‘who is Annamalai’. And then used an insulting word. The word that the DMK leader used actually describes DMK’s character,” PM Modi said.
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The controversy traced back to an India Today interview where Dayanidhi, on being asked to comment about Annamalai, said, “Who’s that?”. The video of the incident went viral in which Maran could be seen gesturing to his supporters to be quiet indicating that he was having a problem in listening to the question. “Oh! You are talking about the joker?” Maran replied when he understood who Annamalai was. He was asked whether he was underestimating the BJP’s Coimbatore candidate to which he asked whether the journalist was not overestimating Annamalai.
 
“The answer to such arrogance will come from the people of Tamil Nadu when they vote against DMK,” PM Modi said.
Dayanidhi Maran reacted to the accusation of ‘arrogance’ and recalled a recent incident in Coimbatore when the reporters’ cars tried to overtake Annamalai’s car. “What did Annamalai do? How arrogant can a person be? He harassed them. Do you see any of the DMK people do that? We are foot soldiers…our leaders have given us instructions that you might be an MP, you might be a councillor but you are expected to serve the people…We work with the people. We are with the people…” Maran said.
“Probably PM Modi is upset with the DMK because the people of Tamil Nadu are with the DMK,” the DMK MP said.