Expelled AIADMK leader and Rajya Sabha member Sasikala Pushpa Ramaswamy joined BJP on Sunday. Sasikala is among the Rajya Sabha members whose term comes to an end this April. She joined in the presence of the BJP’s national secretary, P Muralidhar Rao, and former Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan. Between 2011 and 2014 she served as Thoothukudi’s Mayor following which she served as an AIADMK MP in the Rajya Sabha.
At the press conference at the BJP office, Rao made the announcement of Pushpa’s joining, saying it would be advantageous for the party in Tamil Nadu and described her as a “very aggressive, vocal leader in Tamil Nadu”. “With the joining of Sasikala, the party’s capacity to fight the coming Assembly election will definitely gain further advantage. Sasikala is a Rajya Sabha member and she has been a very aggressive, vocal leader in Tamil Nadu. Coming from south Tamil Nadu, she has also been a mayor of Thoothukudi, a port town, and has worked as the chief of the AIADMK’s women’s wing for the State ,” he said.
BJP’s decision to induct Sasikala into the party highlights its efforts to strengthen its base in Tamil Nadu, ahead of the Assembly polls in the southern state next year. Despite its rise across the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party has been unable to make much of a mark in the Dravidian state so far.
Following an altercation with DMK MP Tiruchi Siva at the Delhi airport in 2016, it was believed that Sasikala Pushpa was expelled from AIADMK. Subsequently, the then AIADMK supremo and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa had expelled her from the party.
“In Tamil Nadu, the BJP is gaining in strength day by day. Our membership and penetration have increased in every district of the state. The appeal of Narendra Modi is enhancing the party’s spread.
“A number of leaders, who have worked in different parties, have been joining the BJP and expressing their willingness to strengthen it under the leadership of Modiji,” Rao said.
Welcoming Sasikala into the BJP, Radhakrishnan, the former Union minister of state in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Shipping, said it will strengthen the party in Tamil Nadu.