Amit Shah Pulls Up Tamilisai?

Although the BJP managed to increase its vote share in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu, it is a fact that neither the BJP nor its allies managed to win a single seat of the total 39 seats in the State.

But the BJP and its allies managed to finish in second position in many constituencies.

While the BJP High Command was initially in favour of an alliance with the AIADMK, the State BJP President Annamalai convinced them to fight the election without any alliance. 

Also, immediately after the election results, Annamalai justified his decision stating that by relegating the AIADMK to third place, the BJP proved it was better off without the alliance.

But there started internal voices of dissent within the BJP with Kalyaan Raman, state BJP’s intellectual cell leader, saying, “Annamalai thinks all senior leaders are liability for the party and he alone works for the BJP’s good.” 

He further added, “Annamalai managed to build an ecosystem in Delhi that will protect and insulate him. Somewhere justice should prevail for all souls who have done their best to grow the party like Pon Radhakrishnan, H Raja, CP Radhakrishnan, Tamilisai Soundararajan, L Ganesan, and a host of others.”

Raman charged that Annamalai is trying to mislead the central leadership about the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu.

“BJP got fewer votes than in 2014 elections is a glaring fact, from 18.8% to 18.2% that too while contesting 38 then to 39 now. The BJP got only 5.56% in 2014 and we got 11.24%, which is another misleading statement. 5.56% was by contesting nine seats and 11.24% was by contesting 23 seats. In other words, on a pro-rata basis, BJP should have got about 14.25% to equalise 2014 performance. Any man with little moral left in him will resign or at least make a drama that he is resigning. I know Annamalai lacks morals,” he added.

Further stoking the controversy was Tamilisai who said the Party lacked a comprehensive strategy in fighting the elections because Annamalai did not want one as he wanted to shoulder the entire responsibility himself. 

Agreeing with Raman that an alliance with AIADMK would have been beneficial, she also questioned the appointment of people with criminal antecedents to key positions.

Tamilisai was one of the guests at the swearing-in ceremony of Nara Chandrababu Naidu. Tamilisai went on to the dais and greeted Amit Shah who was seated beside Venkayya Naidu. 

Shah acknowledged her greeting but as Tamilisai was leaving, he called her back and appeared to admonish her sternly. 

The video of this incident has gone viral and many speculate that Shah was angry with Tamilisai for her public criticism of Annamalai and the BJP and asked her to refrain from washing dirty linen in public.