Chennai, Jun 9 (IANS): Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Subramanian Swamy has urged the Election Commission to initiate action against Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK after some of its leaders called for "genocide" of Brahmins in the state.

He demanded that the registration of the DMK must be cancelled for such "atrocious" statements by its leaders. He also urged the Election Commission to cancel DMK's election symbol and requested the poll panel to allow him to argue his case before it.

He said that being a registered as a political party, such statements by DMK were against the Representation of Peoples Act.

DMK spokesman R. Rajiv Gandhi had claimed that Tamil Brahmins should have been killed as per the "directions" of Dravidian icon, Periyar.

In a tweet a couple of days earlier, the DMK leader had said: "If we Shudras had done what Periyar told us back then, we wouldn't have had to struggle with Brahmins for justice, rights, education and equality. 3% of you Brahmins are still dominating some areas."

His tweet came after political commentator Sumanth Raman had shared a snippet of Periyar's speech of 1973 in Tamil Nadu's Karaikudi, in which he had purportedly called for the annihilation of the Tamil Brahmins.