Chennai, July 7(BPNS)

BJP leaders of Tamil Nadu including its state general secretary have come out against the leader of its alliance partner, AIADMK, and former Tamil Nadu Law minister, C.Ve. Shanmughan. The former minister had in a party program on Tuesday night stated that the AIADMK had lost the 2021 assembly elections due to its alliance with the BJP as there was a major shift of the minority votes of the party.

BJP state general secretary Karu Nagarajan in a statement said,” It’s a known fact that DMK would garner the minority votes in large numbers. Winning and losing elections is common in politics and senior and seasoned politicians like C.Ve. Shanmugham should look into the factors that led to the defeat of the alliance.”

The BJP leader lashed out against the former minister and said, “Being a minister he lost his constituency. However, Shanmugham was known for controversial statements and deviated from his party’s stand on several occasions. We look at this as an individual’s statement rather than the stand of the leadership of the alliance party.”

K.T. Raghavan, BJP general secretary said that the BJP has in its internal review meetings found that certain decisions taken by the AIADMK government had led to electoral losses.

BJP leader and movie star, Khushbu Sundar in a tweet refuted C.Ve.Shanmugan’s speech and said,” It is actually the other way round” and posted a newspaper clipping of the former minister’s speech along with the tweet.

However BJP spokesperson, Narayanan Thirupathy downplayed the former minister’s statement and said that the BJP does not take it seriously. While speaking to BPNS the BJP leader said,” It is an individual’s statement and unless AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam or former Chief Minister and Joint coordinator, Edappadi K Palaniswami issues a statement, there is no need for the BJP to comment. “