Tamilisai: Indomitable spirit

Former Governor of Telangana, Tamilisai is contesting the Lok Sabha election as the BJP candidate from Chennai South.

The BJP is keen on getting its foot in the door as far as Tamil Nadu politics is concerned and this seems to be the best possible opportunity.

Modi, Ram Mandir, Annamalai and the stupidity of Udayanidhi Stalin have all contributed to creating a buzz for the BJP in a land that has never been accepting of the saffron Party.

So, what’s remarkable about Tamilisai contesting?

For the record, Tamilisai has contested the elections five times in Tamil Nadu, to date: thrice to the Assembly and twice for Parliament and lost each time.

However, there’s no loss of respect because as mentioned earlier, the BJP had virtually no presence in Tamil Nadu. 

From 2014 to 2019, Tamilisai was the Tamil Nadu State BJP President before being sent to Telangana as the Governor. 

Everyone assumed this was a comfortable retirement for her loyalty to the BJP. Yet, her period in Telangana was marked by acrimony between KCR and her. 

Tamilisai was accused by KCR of behaving like a BJP agent. Nevertheless, such things are common in politics! 

So, it was all the more surprising to see Tamilisai get back to active politics once again. 

Defeated five times and up against a powerfully entrenched opponent this time, if there is one word to describe her spirit, it’s ‘indomitable’. 

But then, as Tamilisai herself said recently, “I’m very happy now. I was unable to express my political views as a Karyakarta (worker) earlier and reach out to the people directly. I can do that now, again.”