The AIADMK may have finalised its chief ministerial candidate for 2021 but the bigger story right now in the state is that of the party’s Dalit MLA Prabhu and his marriage to Soundarya, a 19-year-old Brahmin woman, the daughter of a temple priest. The MLA from Kallakurichi is 36 years old. The temple priest, who after an abortive suicide attempt, alleged the legislator abducted his daughter. The priest, who had not agreed to the wedding, had tried to barge into the MLA’s residence and attempt suicide and was taken into custody by police. 

The priest accused the MLA of entering into a relationship with his daughter when she was a minor. A senior police officer said the MLA and the woman were in a relationship. Her parents complained that the MLA was in love with her for the past four years (even when she was a minor) while the MLA claimed their affair was hardly four months old. A case of attempt to suicide was booked against the bride’s father, who tried to self-immolate.

The priest said he was not upset over the caste of the MLA but over the 17 year age difference between the two. He said his daughter was not ready for marriage and was just 19. He claimed his daughter was brainwashed and lured into a relationship. She wasn’t prepared for a wedding as and was in the 2nd year of her college course.

Soundarya has put out a video saying she was not under any kind of duress or pressure and that she married Prabhu only because she fell in love. The bride’s father alleged Prabhu of breaking the family’s trust.

In an earlier video, Prabhu and Soundarya said that she was not abducted and was happy in the relationship. The MLA dismissed rumours of abduction and said that they had been in relationship. Prabhu said he had not threatened to kill either her or her family and nor had he lured her.

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Reports said Prabhu was in love with Soundarya and had asked her family’s permission before their marriage but was denied. Soundarya then left her home on October 1 and married me, the MLA added. In the meanwhile, her father went to the police station and complained that she had been abducted and was being pressured into marrying the MLA.

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