Though the BJP in Tamil Nadu got glamour on Saturday with the entry of item girl Namitha into the party, activists and prominent leaders are in a state of shock . They were taken aback by the decision of party’s State leadership to admit film stars Radha Ravi and Namitha into the party and that too in the presence of party’s national working president JP Nadda.
Radha Ravi is known in political circles as a turncoat who frequently changes parties to suit his convenience. “I am sure Mr Nadda is ignorant of the background of Radha Ravi, who will be a major liability and embarrassment for the BJP in days to come,” said a senior BJP leader in the State. Radha Ravi, infamous for his “vitriolic” comments about the fairer sex was in the news recently when he used derogatory words about film artist Nayantara, the reigning diva of Tamil movies.
The actor was in the DMK and crossed over to the AIADMK before staging a home coming to the DMK. During his hopping from one party to another, he had managed to get elected to the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2001 on an AIADMK ticket.”This is the same Radha Ravi who abused the former party chief Tamilissai Sounderarajan in filthy language. He had used derogatory words about Tamilissai and had lampooned her physique and complexion,” said another party leader who blamed former union minister Pon Radhakrishnan for facilitating the entry of Radha Ravi and Namitha, an item girl in Tamil potboilers into the BJP.
The leader said P Muraleedhara Rao, the Tamil Nadu in-charge of the party was playing havoc with the future of the BJP in the State. “For the last three decades, we have been working for establishing the BJP as a political force in the Dravidian stronghold. But the likes of Rao are subverting the growth process of the Hindutwa party in the State,” said the senior leader.
The BJP-led front which had polled nearly 20 per cent votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha election had to content with just 18.4 per cent votes. The party had drawn blanks in the 2016 Assembly election and the 2019 Lok sabha election with the party’s president herself losing the security deposits on both the occasions.
Despite the intensive campaigns undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah all over Tamil Nadu, the State leadership of the BJP had failed to make any impact in the State, pointed out Govindarajan Satyamurthy, veteran scribe and commentator.
“There is no space in Tamil Nadu for the Hindutwa propagated by the BJP. What matters here is caste and the party’s central; leadership is yet to understand the factor. There is space for a third alternative in the State but the BJP is not cut out for that space,” said Satyamurthy.
On his part, Radhakrishnan, said he has no ulterior motives in admitting the likes of Radha Ravi in the party. Interestingly, the BJP in Tamil Nadu has been without a State chief for the last two months as the incumbent president Tamilissai was appointed as Governor of Telangana