Reiterating that there was nothing wrong in him proposing Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the anti-BJP front for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, DMK president M.K. Stalin on Sunday asked, “If we (DMK) did not propose [Mr. Gandhi's candidature], who else would have done it?”

Addressing a gathering at a wedding in the family of the DMK’s Gingee MLA Masthan, Mr. Stalin said: “Nobody has objected to it (proposing Mr. Gandhi’s name for the PM’s post). Has anyone said it was wrong? Some leaders feel that it could be decided after resolving political issues pertaining to each State.”

“No one said that what I had proposed was wrong. This is the fact. No one is against Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s candidature, but [others] felt that we should not have made the announcement now. We should bring together everyone. We won’t allow the BJP to rear its head in Tamil Nadu, and we have to remove it from the country without allowing it to leave any trace,” he said.
‘Sadist’ jibe

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting the people of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Stalin said that when he called the former a ‘sadist’, he wasn’t referring to Mr. Modi the individual or the BJP leader. “I was referring to Mr. Modi, the Prime Minister of the country. I will repeat the word many times. We need to bring a change,” he said.