Chennai, May 26 (IANS): Tamil Nadu minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Board and Member of Assembly from Harbour constituency, PK Sekar Babu has landed himself in a soup over his remarks that claimed north Indians were getting richer in Tamil Nadu owing to Dravidian politics and were still voting for the BJP.

Babu, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran and DMK MLA I Paranathaman were invited to inaugurate a food bank event organised by the Mahavir International Chennai Metro where the minister spoke against those who did not vote for the DMK and labelled them as BJP supporters.

The minister in his speech said,"I have been living in this area for the past forty years and have seen the growth of the North Indians. You are economically empowered now due to Dravidian politics and the [Dravidian parties] uplifted your standards of living and not the BJP."

He further said, "Under some illusion you have been continuously supporting that [BJP] party. Even our parliament member, Dayanidhi Maran would ask as to why I am struggling for you as you don't vote for us. But I would say that they also belong to this land and as a legislative assembly member it is my duty to be neutral for everyone."

Babu also claimed the community did not support the DMK in previous elections and said that even in the 2021 elections, the DMK had got only 50 votes in certain pockets while the BJP got 300 votes in the same areas.

He added, "When I ask the people here as to why they ignore our party, despite our efforts to uplift their livelihood ,they say they voted for us which I know that they were lying. We now have EVMs which record the number of votes in each area. It is fine, even if you ignore us, we won't ignore you."

The BJP has come out strongly against the minister and said that he was threatening those who have not voted for the DMK. Mahila Morcha National President and Coimbatore South MLA, Vanathi Srinivasan told IANS, "This is unfortunate. The minister should not have made such a statement. Elected representatives discriminating against people on the basis of their roots is against the very fundamentals of our constitution."