Chennai, May 10 (BPNS)
Even as the Tamil Nadu state president of the BJP, K. Annamalai was basking in the glory of the son of a senior leader of the ruling DMK joining the saffron party, dissidence against the posting of new office bearers is snowballing into an issue.
Senior DMK leader and Member of Rajya Sabha, TIruchi Siva’s son Suriya Siva had joined the BJP on May 8, Sunday stating that there was no recognition in the DMK for grassroots workers and that he had slogged for fifteen years but party had not recognized him. He had openly said in the presence of BJP Tamil Nadu state president,K. Annamalai that the DMK was now giving recognition to only people who have switched several parties and those who have financial resources.
While the BJP was basking in the glory of a senior DMK leader’s son joining the party, rumblings within the party over new entrants being given plum party positions is creating issues for Annamalai.
K. Annamalai has recently affected a new revamp in the party and had given plum positions to leaders who have joined the BJP recently including Sasikala Pushpa ,former MP of AIADMK was accommodated in key posts while senior leaders of the party who had served in the grassroots were left out.
Sasikala Pushpa, R.C. Paulraj, and former MLA of DMK, AG Sampath were made Vice Presidents of the party while the senior leader Gayatri Raghuraman who was the president of the party’s art and cultural wing has been relieved of the post.
A.R. Mahalakshmi, party floor leader in the assembly Nainar Nagendran, and M.N. Raja who were serving as party-state vice presidents were also relieved of their posts.
Gayatri Raghuraman who was relieved of the post of president of arts and cultural wing of the party in a social media post said that she was given the post of language convenor but that she had turned it down. She also said that she was ‘ok’ without a posting and would work 500 percent work for and service for the nation.
The state youth wing president of the party Vinoj. P. Selvam was also removed from the post and given the post of state secretary of the BJP which is an elevated post. However, sources close to Vinoj told BPNS that while the post was an elevation as per protocol, there was nothing much to do in the post at the grass-root level.
BJP floor leader in the assembly and former vice president of the party, Nainar Nagenthran when contacted said,” The BJP is following the one man, one post and I am the floor leader in the legislative assembly and there is no rift or rumblings in the party.”
Sources in the BJP however told BPNS that the postings of Sasikala Pushpa, R.C. Paulraj, Karate Thiagarajan, and A.P. Muruganandam have not gone down well with many senior functionaries who were sidelined in the revamp. Party sources said that some of these senior functionaries have approached the RSS leadership to sort out the issue and have complained that the state president was indulging in one-man show which was not acceptable in the party scheme of things.
K. Annamalai, after his posting as the state president of the BJP has been trying to position the party in an aggressive mode and has been taking on the ruling DMK in all areas. It has to be seen as to how the erstwhile IPS officer will be able to tackle the current issue that has developed in the state unit following the posting of new office bearers.
