After the Tamil Nadu BJP Information Technology wing president C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar quit the party and joined its alliance partner, the AIADMK, on Sunday, the BJP seemed to signal that it would not hesitate to confront the AIADMK.
At least two State-level functionaries of the BJP took to social media to attack the AIADMK. Without naming the party, State general secretary Karuppu Muruganandam wondered if anyone thought they could weaken the BJP and strengthen their own party by “poaching” functionaries and defaming BJP State president K. Annamalai, what would happen if the BJP, which knew how to adopt a similar tactic, did the same.
BJP State Sports and Skill Development Cell president Amar Prasad Reddy said, “The AIADMK, being an alliance partner, should not have done this.” He also tweeted, in a reference to the AIADMK, that the voters [of Erode (East)] had shown the exit [door] to those who considered the ‘Kongu’ region their fort, by making them lose with a margin of around 66,000 votes. “The BJP is the only future for Tamil Nadu,” he claimed.
When it was pointed out that people quitting a party and joining its ally was not new, as K. Manickam, a steering committee member of the AIADMK, was welcomed by the BJP in 2021 even as an AIADMK functionaries’ meeting was on, a senior leader of the BJP said joining the AIADMK was tolerable, but baseless and defamatory allegations against Mr. Annamalai were not.
“The allegations and the language used in Mr. Nirmal Kumar’s statement were unacceptable. It appeared as if the statement was endorsed by the AIADMK,” he said.
Meanwhile, another State secretary of the BJP, Dilip Kannan, quit the party on Monday, expressing dissatisfaction with the leadership of Mr. Annamalai. He accused the State president of not allowing other leaders to grow.
