With hardly two days to go for the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chennai to campaign for the NDA candidates in the Assembly election in Tamil Nadu, the BJP in the State is in total disarray if allegations by some of the senior and veteran leaders are to be believed. The parties with which the BJP has aligned, the Indian Jananayaga Katchi led by Patchamuthu owner of SRM Transport Services, SRM University and Puthiya Thalamurai TV network and India Makkal Kalvi Munnetra Kazhakam led by T Devanathan has not gone well with most of the BJP leaders in the State other than those occupying official positions.
“Tamil Nadu BJP is under the control of the Kanyakumari cartel led by Union Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan. The present leadership of Tamil Nadu BJP is taking the party to nowhere,” TS Sankarana-rayanan, a senior BJP leader from Madurai told The Pioneer. He said those leaders who have put in more than two decades of ‘selfless’ service for the party were overlooked during the selection of candidates for the Assembly election. “Only the henchmen of Radhakrishnan and his acolytes has been fielded as candidates,” charged Sankaranarayanan.
The allegation by Sankaranarayanan is not an isolated one. There are many leaders and activists in the party who has been pointing fingers at the party leadership, especially Pon Radhakrishnan, senior secretary Mohanarajulu and the national secretary P Muraleedhar Rao who has been deputed by the Central leadership to oversee the BJP affairs in Tamil Nadu.
Uma Anandan, a former women’s wing leader pointed out that selection of some of the candidates has not been made with an eye to win the election. She said party workers were flabbergasted by the BJP candidate who has been fielded at Mylapore assembly constituency, described as the cultural and intellectual capital of Chennai. “Instead of fielding someone who is familiar to the people of the constituency, Radhakrishnan has brought in Karu Nagarajan, a person about whom nobody in Mylapore has heard of. We understand that he is one of the trustees of Madras Port Trust, appointed at the instance of Radhakrishnan,” said Anandan.
Anandan also said that Patchamuthu, leader of the IJK, uses his TV channel Puthiya Talamurai to attack the Sangh Parivar. “The channel always portrays the BJP and Sang Parivar in poor light. Now we hear Patchamuthu who is also known as Parivendhar is sharing the stage with Prime Minister when he comes to Chennai for campaigning,” said Anandan.
T Balasubramania Adityan, BJP activist and president of Modi Parishad, which is working to restore the rivers in Tamil Nadu back to their old glory, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not waste his time campaigning in Tamil Nadu. “He is a great man who built the infrastructure for the BJP in Tamil Nadu. But the people in Tamil Nadu do not trust the present State leadership and the BJP would not touch the double digit figure in Tamil Nadu,” said Adityan, son of late ST Adityan, the Supreme Court lawyer who shocked the Congress by defeating the party candidate in the 1952 general election.
SV Sekhar, party spokesman is already on record pleading with the Prime Minister to cancel his trip to Tamil Nadu. Going by the statements made by a national level leader from Tamil Nadu, the BJP may find it difficult to field polling agents in all the booths from where its candidates are contesting. “If one has to go by what Muraleedhar Rao is claiming, the BJP should get more than 50,00,000 votes in this election. He has claimed that the BJP has 50 lakh members in the State. lets wait till May 19 to know the truth,” said Adityan.