Baring a combative body language, DMK president M.K. Stalin on Friday said “actor Chief Minister” C. Joseph Vijay, after playing a hero in Jananayagan, had turned a villain by imposing a byelection through “horse-trading” and “murder of democracy”.

“I have come not just for votes, but also for justice from the electorate over the election being thrust on them by the Chief Minister, heading a ‘minority government’, for selfish gain,” Mr. Stalin said, seeking votes for the DMK’s candidate in the Dharapuram (Reserved) constituency, S. Suganya.

“The byelection is a waste of your tax money. The vote you had cast only months ago has been rendered infructuous,” Mr. Stalin told a massive gathering, adding that now was the opportunity to teach a lesson [to the TVK] by choosing a trustworthy candidate., he said, He also referred to TVK candidate Sathyabama’s switch to the ruling party after resigning as an AIADMK MLA as a “somersault”, while levelling horse-trading charges and making an oblique reference to her appearance.

On the other hand, he described Ms. Suganya, a lawyer by profession, as an articulate candidate who will lend voice to the causes of the people of Dharapuram effectively in the Assembly.

Addressing Mr. Vijay as ‘CM Sir’ and ‘Bro’, Mr. Stalin said the former had stopped acting in front of the camera, but was delivering ‘yelling’ performances in front of the people. Yet, media cameras were anathema to the Chief Minister, Mr. Stalin added.

The TVK was meek before the Election Commission of India (EC) over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) due to “fear of the BJP”, Mr. Stalin alleged, adding that the Chief Minister himself had admitted in his Dharapuram campaign speech that “the TVK was a branch of the BJP”.

“Mr. Vijay has breached the decorum in the Assembly by making a mockery of my MISA incarceration,” the DMK president said, calling upon Mr. Vijay to behave like a Chief Minister and not a ‘Cheap Minister’.

The TVK was not a political party, but a corporate mafia with working partner, sleeping partner and secret partner, bent on destroying Tamil Nadu, Mr. Stalin emphasised, while making specific references to the “surreptitious sale” of tickets for the consecration of the Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai, and the move to construct a new Assembly Complex at Pattinapakkam at a cost of ₹1,200 crore despite the State’s piquant financial situation.

Attacking the TVK government on law and order, Mr. Stalin claimed that informants on drug peddling were being murdered, and that sexual abuse, lock-up deaths, and honour killings had gone up. Industrial investments were taking a “U-turn” to Andhra Pradesh, he claimed. “If the ruling party wins, registration tax, milk price, and transport fare will rise. The TVK has to be defeated for putting a stop to ‘MLA shopping’ and turning the government’s focus on governance.“Don’t listen to your children, vote for DMK to safeguard their future,” Mr. Stalin claimed.