The Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP finds itself in a very embarrassing position with some of the candidates for the bypolls to the local bodies deserting the party and joining the ruling AIADMK. Friday saw GPR Vellaiyammal, the party candidate who withdrew from the Tirunelveli mayoral election meeting Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence and joining the AIADMK with her husband and two-year-old child.
Reports are coming from elsewhere in the State about BJP candidates crossing over to the AIADMK. At no point of time since its formation in 1980 the BJP has faced such a dilemma and that too at a time when the party assumed power in New Delhi with absolute majority. Though the party leaders in Tamil Nadu blame the AIADMK for poaching its cadre and 'prominent' leaders, the truth is that the BJP in the State is a divided house.
It is an open secret that the AIADMK would not allow BJP to grow in Tamil Nadu because Jayalalithaa knows well that the Hindutwa party's strengthening would be at the cost of her own party.