The BJP in Tamil Nadu suffered a setback with the candidate fielded by the party-led alliance Annamalai Muthukumar (32) from Madathukulam Assembly constituency in Tiruppur district for the May 16 election walking over to the AIADMK on Sunday. Muthukumar, a mechanical engineer by profession, joined the AIADMK in presence of party supremo J Jayalalithaa during the election rally addressed by her at Thanjavur on Sunday.
With Muthukumar jumping the fence and joining the AIADMK, the BJP has no candidate in this constituency. The AIADMK, the DMK, the PWF, the PMK and the Kongunadu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam will fight it out among themselves.
Muthukumar was a leader of the Indian Makkal Kalvi Munnetra Kazhagam (IMKMK), a caste outfit led by T Deivanathan, owner of a local cable TV network. Madathukulam was one of the 24 seats given by the BJP to this outfit which had agreed to contest the election on the lotus symbol of the BJP. "I decided to run away from the battlefield because there was nobody to help me. During the last one week I spent Rs 5 lakh from my personal savings towards the campaign expenses and I am left with no money. Neither the IMKMK nor the BJP leadership came to help me in spite of the number of phone calls I made," Muthukumar told The Pioneer over telephone from Coimbatore.
He said the district secretary and president of the party as well as the State president of the IMKMK did not respond to his phone calls or SMSes and he was left with no other alternative than to accept the invitation by the AIADMK. "I was saddened that the BJP leadership in Tamil Nadu too ignored my predicament. Now I'll work for the success of the AIADK candidate K Manoharan," said Muthukumaran.
However, Deivanathan, president, IMKMK, told The Pioneer that Muthukumaran was kidnapped by Pollachi Jayaraman and was presented in front of Jayalalithaa. "We are filing a habeas corpus petition demanding Mauthukumaran to be brought before the court and set free. And we are also campaigning intensively for the success of the lotus symbol at Madathukulam," said Deivanathan. People in Madathukulam and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu stand to see a rare spectacle of the defected candidate Muthukumaran campaigning for the AIADMK candidate while the former's old party colleagues campaigning for the lotus symbol.