Former DMK leader V.P. Duraisamy joins BJP

Mr. Duraisamy said he had left the DMK because it had deviated from its ideology

A file photograph of V.P. Duraisamy

Former Assembly Deputy Speaker and ex-DMK MLA, V.P. Duraisamy, who

was sacked from the post of deputy general secretary of the party on Thursday, joined the BJP on Friday morning in the presence of State BJP president L. Murugan and other senior leaders.

“I left the DMK because they have deviated from their ideology for which the party was started. I am joining a party (BJP) that has good intentions,” Mr. Duraisamy said after obtaining the BJP membership.

Mr. Duraisamy accused the DMK of indoctrinating party cadres that the BJP was working only for the welfare of the forward community, he claimed. “Only later we realised that the the BJP is working for Hindus, Christians, Muslims and SC/STs,” he said.

The former DMK leader also accused the DMK of indulging in caste politics. “There is caste politics in the DMK. There is a different type of justice for different castes,” he alleged. “Recently one MP spoke about a judge’s appointment as if it was some alms being thrown, and everyone knows what happened recently when the DMK MPs met Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary (K. Shanmugam),” he said alluding to former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran’s remarks deemed offensive to Dalits.

“Wherever you go there is caste politics. Persons from AIADMK and DMK meet each other, but when I go to meet my brother, Murugan, without any agenda, it is considered a sin?,” he asked.

Mr. Duraisamy said if Periyar and Anna had been alive today, they too would have gone and met Mr. Murugan and congratulated him on his appointment as the State BJP leader. “This is the equality that they were fighting for,” he said.

Claiming that he was only a politician and not an opportunist, Mr. Duraisamy said his joining the BJP was like falling into his mother’s lap. “The mother’s lap will take good care of me,” he said.