Chennai: DMK working president MK Stalin on Tuesday mounted a twin challenge against Rajinikanth and the BJP saying that there was no political vacuum in the state and sought the arrest of senior BJP leader H Raja for his remark over Periyar statues. He said Raja must be arrested under the Goondas Act for first posting that it was the turn of Periyar statues in Tamil Nadu after Lenin statue was uprooted in Agartala in Tripura soon after BJP victory in the communist bastion.

Stalin said that Raja’s statement was calculated to incite violence in a peaceful state like Tamil Nadu and the government must act tough to nip the mischief in the bud. At the same time, he also dared anyone to touch a statue of Periyar and see.

A Facebook post on H Raja’s page said “Today Lenin’s statue, tomorrow Tamil Nadu’s EVR Ramaswami’s statue.”

Pariyar, a social activist and politician hailing from Erode, fought against casteism and had formed the Dravidar Kazhagam. The two Dravidian parties draw their ideologies from this Kazhagam that had fought against exploitation of non-Brahmin Dravidian people of Tamil Nadu.

Raja on his part tried to distance self from the facebook post saying it was maintained by administrators. Besides, the post was deleted after some time, as soon as DMK mounted an attack on Raja.