Sofagate: TVK's Kanimozhi Santhosh battles new row after astrology controversy
A viral photo of government officials on plastic chairs and the Kavundampalayam MLA on a plush sofa triggers a row, and a lengthy explanation
Kanimozhi Santhosh hasn't even warmed up her MLA seat yet, and she's already running out of controversies to clarify.
The latest? A photograph. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) legislator from Kavundampalayam, who rode into office on a thumping 42,000-vote majority earlier this month, posted a picture of herself holding a meeting with public health officials.
Routine enough, except for one detail that the internet could not unsee: the MLA reclined on what the Tamil media eagerly described as a 'throne' — a plush, oversized, unmistakably regal sofa — while the government officials she had summoned sat crammed together on plastic chairs, the kind you find at a budget wedding.
Quickly viral
Twitter did what Twitter does. Within minutes, words like "feudal" were flying. Critics pointed out the awkward optics of a people's representative treating government servants like supplicants at court.
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Even more awkwardly, the heat came not just from rival DMK corners but from within TVK itself — a party whose leader Joseph Vijay has carefully built a man-of-the-people image. One viral photo was doing a fine job of complicating that brand.
Kanimozhi Santhosh moved quickly to douse the fire. Her official MLA office, she explained, was mid-renovation. Officials arrived urgently, so she had no choice but to receive them at her private astrology practice.
As for the 'throne' — chair, she clarified firmly — predates her political career and has sat in her office for years. She didn't buy it to intimidate bureaucrats. It just happened to look like she might, she said.
She then shifted to the offensive: "It is unfair to claim I am bringing disrepute to Vijay simply because officials sat on plastic chairs. I understand political civility." She added that certain people were plainly uncomfortable watching a woman succeed in politics and were weaponising the sofa to bring her down.
Controversy waiting to happen
The throne episode would be easier to brush off if it were Kanimozhi Santhosh's first stumble. But, even before she won the election, an old video surfaced of her claiming that astrology could cure cancer — a statement that landed with all the grace one might expect.
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Then came questions about the "Dr" prefix she uses: she holds, she clarified, a doctorate in astrology.
The MLA is also a trained lawyer. Before entering politics, she practised as a legal consultant and a high-profile celebrity astrologer under her professional venture "Astro Maagic".
Coimbatore's political circles are now watching TVK's freshest MLA with considerable interest — less to see what she does in office, and more to see what she clarifies next.